Quiet Week Coming, Warm & Dry Here, Pattern Flip Coming

March is the transition month when the building Spring warmth clashes with the retreating Winter cold, often resulting in huge & severe weather outbreaks.  We are running slightly above normal regarding severe weather reports for this year, but this week looks rather quiet.  It's because the huge upper ridge over the West has flattened, leaving mainly a WNW flow across the country.  Without any major dips in the jet stream, there isn't a trigger to produce storms.  That shows up in the WPC's 7-day rain total forecast.

You can see how the upper ridge has flattened and retreated off of California, allowing cooler air to knock down the summer-like heat of this past weekend.  Look at the 24-hour temperature changes.

St. Louis was 90+ on Saturday, mid 70s yesterday, but barely 50 today.  It's hard to find the front on the surface map as there are few clouds with it.

You can see the lower dew points (drier air) just north of us, and we could see some of that for tomorrow and Wednesday.  

You can tell just by looking at the clouds around us that these are not rain-producing clouds. Our rain chances will stay slim to none for the rest of this week.

While we have been dry, perhaps you've seen the terrible rains that have flooded some of Hawaii?

The main rains have shifted farther to the south, with Honolulu seeing some sunshine.  Heavy rains combined with mountainous terrain leads to deadly flooding, much like what happened in the Carolinas several years ago.  Put them on your prayer line Gang.  Stay tuned!

Luck Of The Irish & Italians, Another Warm Week, Cooler Weekend

Many years ago, the late Eddie Renton came up with an idea of combining the Irish with the Italians for a parade with the theme "It's about time!"  Years later, Jason Renton runs what has become one of Metairie's largest & longest parades, and the weather couldn't have been better.  Bright sunshine, a gentle breeze with highs of 80+ made for great parade watching & the crowds were huge!

The LSU marching band led off the parade & fired up the crowd.  Many of the floats honored past Grand Marshals, and some honored those recently passed.  I went just to watch, but got caught up in the excitement of catching stuff.  Only in New Orleans !

A few puffy clouds developed over south Louisiana, but the more concentrated clouds are ahead of our next cold front. This front will not pack a wallop and is not expected to bring us any rain.

There is a sharp temperature contrast on either side of this front (92 St. Louis, 35 in Chicago!), but it is expected to lose its upper support, barely reaching south of us on Tuesday.  The reason for a front coming is the huge western upper ridge has been suppressed southward.

 

The air flowing across the country is now mainly west to east.  There will be a weak dip coming over the Great Lakes, bringing them a cool down, but we'll just see a brief cooling here. A stronger front arrives for next weekend.

Finally, the recent rains & snow melt up north has brought down a mini surge to the lower Mississippi River.  The Carrollton gauge briefly topped 8 feet today.

You can see the muddy waters on satellite views, especially at the mouth of the River.  Lakes Pontchartrain & Borgne look clean since we have not had any rain for days, and the rivers flowing into them are weak.  Been trying to think of any ideas to do a podcast, but our weather remains boring.  Might be time to do another interview with someone?  Stay tuned!