What Makes For a Great Day?

I love October-November & March-April, both times of the year when not only is it warm (not hot) but very dry with low humidity.   A cold front has swept down off the east coast with a large area of high pressure that is exceptionally dry.

When I say this is very dry air, look at the dew points.   We can see some single digit dew points during an Arctic blast and that is what happened here.  The difference is we're in March and the higher sun angle quickly modifies the cold air here.

Single digit dew points extend all the way down into South Carolina with even Miami's DP below 50.

We will see that change during this week as the surface high slowly pulls to the east and our winds turn more back off the Gulf bringing back the muggies.

Warm air has surged northward into the Plains and Great Lakes with Chicago enjoying it's warmest day in 2021.  That will last for several more days as a huge upper trough will move into California and an upper ridge building over the SE.

You can see how the low clouds/low level moisture already back inland in Texas and we'll start to see more clouds later this week.   Since we have such dry air in place and rainfall recently has been light, the satellite view also sees numerous fires around us.

There is a large fire in north central Louisiana, but by far the biggest is in eastern Oklahoma.  It doesn't appear much rain is in our forecast for the next 7 days, so these fires are likley to continue.

Despite the lack of rain here, the recent storms up over the Ohio Valley last week is sending a surge down the Mississippi River that will crest here on the 21st.  The Carrollton gauge already has topped 10 fee with the forecasted crest being 13 feet.   Let's hope no heavy rains come during the next 2-3 weeks which should allow the River to begin falling.  Once over 11 feet, the Corps of Engineers triggers some restrictions regarding working around the Mississippi River levees.  We just don't want to see a projected crest approach 17 feet that could trigger a reopening of the Spillway.  Right now, that should not happen.  Stay tuned!