Our "good feel" air is about to leave us as the muggies will be back for the next 3 days. Don't fret to much because another front will arrive before daybreak on Friday sweeping away the clouds & showers and giving us another great weekend. As this next front approaches, it will tap some tropical moisture from a former Pacific Hurricane (Rick) so we have the potential to see some strong storms late Thursday into early Friday. The cold air behind this front is not as cold as last weekend's front, but it will feel much drier again for Saturday and Sunday. It appears any severe storms should stay well north of Lake P., mainly across central and north Louisiana.
Here's one for you. The main buoy east of the mouth of the Mississippi River (a major shipping channel) failed last month. The National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) in Bay St. Louis is responsible for maintenance & repair of this buoy, HOWEVER, the Mineral Management Service (MMS) is responsible for funding the buoy. You guessed it...MMS says they have no money to fund it anymore so NDBC "dis-established" it. Now here's the real problem. The forecasters at NWS must put out marine forecasts for the Gulf's coastal waters. How can they tell you what's it gonna do when they don't know what it is right now? Seems to me Hollywood made a movie about a "perfect storm" that sunk a ship because NOAA didn't repair an offshore buoy? You gotta love government!
9 comments:
Its terrible when the government can spend millions on man made global warming solutions and money to study global warming is related to man. You think they could put the money to something good like fixing a bouy that supplies info for wave heights.
RANT TIME!
That bugs me so much, Bob. Not only is it effecting the Marine forecasts but more importantly it is threatening the safety of People. I guess they could use Quickscat to make a forecast. But ohh wait! Quickscat could fail at any day now and I fear it will not be available for next Hurricane Season, and you guessed it right. There is not enough money to replace it either. So, what ever happened to the Stimulus Money that the Government gave to NOAA? Well the answer is for that is it was used for Global Warming research; Instead of replacing one of the most useful Meteorological Tools in the Tropics where surface observations lack. That gets me steaming mad! The means only one thing though, we are going to have to roll up our sleeves and observe and forecast Tropical and Marine Weather old school. Thank You government for doing useful things with our tax dollars!
ONLYREAL....How much wind will we have on Saturday? Also, if you could please educate us (me). What is the difference in the terms "windy" and "breezy" as seen in Bob's 7 day forecast. Thanks! By the way, those websites are fantastic. I will let you know when I am ready for a few more.
Here is my take...
The difference between Windy and Breezy is simple. "Breezy" is when the wind is noticeable but generally does not cause problems; I would say winds 15-30mph. "Windy" is when the wind is more than noticeable and is when it becomes strong enough to cause problems such as making driving difficult(especially with large vehicles), trashcans and other loose objects on your property getting blown around, and maybe even some small branches breaking; Winds over 35+mph.
Long range forecast models are forecasting a deep trough over the south. Near freezing temperatures across the metro area for Halloween are also forecasted with the trough. Predicting far out is unreliable, but since we are in a el nino year does that mean we are able to have earlier freezes?
I've been watching that WXBUG. All models are coming into agreement on a deep-layered trough diving into the Lower 48 late next week. But I am not fully buying it. IF this were to happen we would likely have a Severe Weather Outbreak and of course a Cold Front. However, after taking a closer look I disagree with you WXBUG on a freeze in the New Orleans Metro Area after frontal passage that is associated with the system next week. It looks to me that the front will not be that strong and the Cool Air-mass that will advect into the region will be quite shallow with winds aloft remaining out of the South-West, even when the trough is passing to our North because it looks at this time that it will not dive far enough South to put us in North-West Flow aloft which would allow a freeze in our area. Not only does it look like the Trough will not dive far enough South but the models also show a quick retrogression. The models only show 50's at worst for lows next weekend.
Based on climatology El Nino years generally favor freezes for South-East Louisiana. The main reason for this is because in El-Nino years we have the Sub-Tropical Jet stream planted over the Gulf Coast States which means the Flow aloft is from the Southwest. This usually knocks the punch out of most cold fronts that try to penetrate the Louisiana coast and leaves most Cold-Air-masses "shallow" by the time they reach us and this allows the air-mass to warm up quicker than a Deep Layered cold Air-Mass. There are exceptions to this however, and a perfect example is when it Snowed here Christmas Day in 2004 which occurred during a weak El Nino event.
Post a Comment