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!

It's Over, Too Warm Too Early, Super El Nino Coming?

Winter 2025-26 officially ended at 9:46 AM this morning, the exact moment of the Spring Equinox. Equinoxes & solstices (change of seasons) happen/are caused by the 23.5-degree tilt of the Earth's axis as it rotates around the sun.

That tilt means the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun in the summer, allowing for longer days and more intense sunshine.  The reverse happens in the Winter.  It can be seen on the global satellite view, where today both Poles have equal day/nights.

Typically, in March, as we change seasons, there are active storms with wide weather swings across the nation.  But not today as 75 % of the country is enjoying bright sunshine and very warm temperatures.

Only the Great Lakes and the Northeast have clouds and chilly temperatures.

Areas that just last week had snow are now in the 70s & 80s.

Without any fronts around, most of the nation will enjoy almost summer-like heat this weekend.

There is some concern over our lack of rainfall as we approach the growing season.  However, until temps get near 90 every day, any drought issues are easily handled by watering your lawn & plants.  No rain is expected for the next 7-10 days.

As you can see, the next week will be more May-like than late March.  There might be a weak front coming for NEXT weekend, bringing us a chance for rain.  The other weather story on the internet is the "Super El Niño" coming for this next hurricane season.  I have no clue how anyone could know that, but the CPC has issued an El Niño WATCH, and that has triggered the usual over hyping.  We are 2+ months from the start of the 2026 season.  The first forecasts will be coming out in the next 2 weeks.  My gut tells me they'll call for few total number of storms (10-12), but they will "predict" several U.S. landfalls, unlike the zero hurricane landfalls we had in 2025.  Let's enjoy our 4-6 weeks of Spring weather before we have to endure the summer heat and the anxiety of each hurricane season.  Stay tuned!