The Chill Is Back...

After a fairly pleasant day with highs 70+, I took Bailey out for her evening walk tonight and was smacked in the face with temps in the 50s with a strong north wind.   The front actually came through before daybreak but the cold air lagged behind the front by 80-100 miles.   Fortunately for us, the core of this cold will stay well to our north & east and will not linger, although this is not our last cold front as several more are coming during the next 7-10 days.   Last night I indicated our severe threat was decreasing and the hundreds of severe weather reports across northern Louisiana were reduced to only 2 for south LA/MS.  One in Lutcher was a brief & very small tornado that did cause some heavy damage to several homes.  The rest of us just saw generally less than an inch of rain, some lightning & briefly gusty winds.   I could tell it wasn’t much as I had nothing to pick up in my yard & I have 4 large water oak trees.   The front may be down off our coast, but it is not a clean front.  We’re likely to see some cloud cover linger over the South Shore and that means Sunday’s highs will stay in the 60s.  Another cool push will sink near us by Tuesday, but it will not have much upper support to push through.  Our next strong front won’t arrive until next Saturday and this system could be a major severe weather maker, especially for the central plains on Friday and into the deep South on Saturday.  That’s still many days away and things could change.

 

With Shelby Latino enjoying her new baby girl, Ch. 8 has hired Zack Fradella to cover the weekend weather programs for the next several weeks.  Zack is no stranger to Ch. 8 as during high school, he was one of my weather interns.  He worked on  Lake Charles TV for several years and that explains how he looks smooth & relaxed on the air.  I hope management sees his potential and keeps him around as vacation relief during the summer and fall seasons.  I remain a hurricane consultant, but with all the computer changes during the last 2+ years, I can no longer just jump in and prepare a program.   Those days are long gone.  Stay tuned!