Monday, October 16, 2017

The Party is Over...

Yep, the “Fat Lady” is on stage in front of a full house at the Sundowner Chalet (made up!) belting out “Turn Out the Lights, The Party is Over”, marking the end of the hurricane season for us.  Again, we have seen late October storms, but we are done with the major hurricane threat.  In fact, long range models are indicating there could be a major WINTER-like storm develop in the 10-14 day time frame that could blanket parts of the east coast with snow!   If that proves correct, we could see some really chilly, possibly record breaking cold air before Halloween.   In the short term, today’s cold front made it really feel terrific and tonight might dip into the 40s north of the Lake and some 50s on the South Shore.  With water temperatures still 80+, locations near Lake Pontchartrain will hover around 70.  Still, this is much drier air that will hang around for 3-4 days.  Models still show a huge surge of Gulf moisture coming back for later this weekend ahead of our next front coming next week.  I’m going to start bringing out my winter sweaters as they’ll be needed before the end of the month.   It won’t be long before many of us will be complaining…”it’s too cold”.   Nah!   I have mentioned in the past how weather often works.  Usually when it is either very warm or very cold, the atmosphere flip-flops, not to back to near normal but far to the other extreme.  If that happens this year, we’ll likely see both November & December colder than normal.   Regardless, it’s nice to say goodbye to the daily 90+ degree temperatures that began way back in May.  Let’s enjoy the next couple of days before a wild weather ride happens for the last 10 days of this month.   Stay tuned!

 

As the cold front sinks farther down into the Gulf, we always pay attention for low pressure developing along the frontal boundary.  That’s unlikely to happen since the push of cooler and very dry air at the surface has moved well offshore.  Even Brownsville has dew points in the 40s this afternoon.  Sing on “Fat Lady” !

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