Who Needs Cold Air For Gumbo? 1st Frost Far North Shore?

While driving to golf this morning (I play twice a week), on the radio they were talking about making gumbo when it gets cold.  For me, any day, every week is the time for a good gumbo.  Perhaps in days past, when it was common for more people to cook at home, it was tradition to make a good gumbo once it got cold.  In modern times, you can purchase pre-made/cooked meals (including gumbo) at all supermarkets.  Some offer combo meals for less than $10.   I think most of us chose to do that instead of spending hours in the kitchen preparing & cooking meals.  The modern generations don't remember what our Grandmas used to do.  Sometimes I think that's sad as making a good gumbo is a lost art.

That cold, Arctic air is pouring down into the lower 48 as a strong disturbance is diving towards the Great Lakes. The freeze line is dropping into Iowa heading southward quickly.

The NW upper flow over us now has pushed the first cold front down into South Florida as a secondary surge will arrive before dawn.  Our coldest mornings will be Friday & Saturday when parts of the North Shore could dip to near freezing.  We won't get cold enough to protect our plants with this front south of Lake P., but it's a sign of things to come.

The next 3-4 days will finally be well below normal/average after many weeks way too warm.  No rain is expected here until sometime next week as we warm back up before Thanksgiving.

IF you're dressed for it, the next several days will be delightful as this will be really dry air bringing that good feel after days of 70+ dew points.  Shreveport's dew point is already down into the 20s!

The only negative tonight into Thursday will be very strong NNW winds of 20-30+.  Bundle up Gang!  Finally, the main weather story is along the West coast where a major storm remains stalled.

This storm has brought power outages to many in Washington and an "atmospheric River" into northern & central California.  Look for lots of videos on the network newscasts.  For us, enjoy the sunshine and finally Fall temperatures.  Stay tuned!

Fast Moving Storms Created Some Flooding, Real Cool Down Later This Week.

The NWS forecast from yesterday proved to pretty much be on target with widespread rain totals of 1-2" and locally some heavier amounts (3-4"+ North Shore, along coast) that caused brief street flooding.  The "worst case scenario" (6-8") didn't happen since the line of storms continued to move quickly to the east.  The heavy rains are now east of Mobile Bay over the Florida beaches.  This was NOT a cold front, but more an upper trough moving through. Even the drier air at the surface lags back to our west as the dew points drop into the 40s.

As the upper flow becomes more from the NW, the cooler air will filter over us, especially Wednesday PM into this weekend. The current upper flow hasn't shifted yet, but it will. The top satellite view is the current flow. Note the huge low west of Seattle.

That storm looks like a hurricane, acts like a hurricane (Buoy winds to 69 MPH) but is a "cold core" winter storm.  It will linger off the West coast for days but a piece of energy crosses the Rockies tomorrow deepening the Great Lakes upper low.  Here's the timeline. We begin with an upper low over the Dakotas.

The second graphic is valid for Wednesday PM followed by the bottom valid for Friday AM.  That sharp little dip will bring down the chilly air.  However, look at the upper pattern for Sunday.

We go back to mainly a west to east flow across the southern states.  Why is that important?  Because it is getting REALLY cold up in Canada & Alaska.

Burrr! 35-40 degrees below zero and it's still November?!!!  My experience tells me if Alaska gets unusually cold, look for that frigid air to plunge southward in 10-14 days.  I've mentioned in previous posts, after a very long warm stretch, the weather often will go to very cold.  Snow lovers, don't give up on some snow next month!

Tomorrow will probably get back into the 70s before temps start to fall in the afternoon.

Obviously, the FOX 8 weather page is having a problem.  You get the idea about the coming chill.  You'll need sweaters & jackets.  Stay tuned!