With nothing going on locally, I'm going to where the weather is active or about to get active. The Storm Prediction Center has a scale they use to convey to the public the severe weather risk.  It's on their website in great detail.  All you need to know is it's like the hurricane scale, the higher the number the stronger the storm & greater the risk.  For example, several weeks back with the Slidell tornadoes, SPC had the North Shore under a level 2-3 risk.  That's high for us, but look what they have issued for Kansas & Oklahoma today & tonight.  A level ..read more

Usually the West Coast Rainy season ends by May, but not today.  Seems like I've been talking about the upper tough along the West Coast for months and it's still there with another strong system bringing them nasty weather.  This week's drought monitor shows none of California under drought conditions and today's storm is dumping lots of rain and snow at higher elevations.  For May, it's really cold out there. What does that system have to do with out weather?  Absolutely nothing, but we're stuck in the same old thing day after day.   Almost hot, hum ..read more

After yesterday's weather stayed dry for the Rolling Stones concert, today began looking dreary with little hope for any breaks until late afternoon.  But like the hit song from the Lovin' Spoonful back in 1965 said, "Do you believe in magic in a young girl's heart, how the music can free her whenever it starts, and it's magic if the music is groovy."..and almost as soon as the music started shortly before noon, buda boom, like magic a hole opened up over SE Louisiana. Some of you may say..."that's just dumb luck."  While many of us truly believe it's God winking saying " al ..read more

I've said many times I believe in weather CYCLES, that sometime last weeks or months.  Remember last summer's heat wave & all the 100+ degree days.  It seems for the past 7-10 days the upper air flow has been stuck with an upper trough over the western states with a ridge over the Southeast.  This has resulted in the mid part of the country getting soaked as spokes of energy rotate around the upper trough up over the SE ridge. Look at how chilly it is under the upper trough.  On the flip side, it summer-like across the eastern states. SPC & WPC keeps m ..read more

Yesterday's clouds & storms kept PM temps in the 60s making it feel a little chilly with the brisk southerly winds.  Today those storms are over the Florida beaches drifting away leaving us in bright sunshine.  It didn't take long for us to jump back into the middle 80s making it feel almost hot.  We still can get a late season cool front, but soak up what we have now as we know what's coming. With the second weekend of Jazz Fest coming, we may luck out staying mostly dry.  Why?  There remains a weak upper ridge over the Gulf steering storms up and around ..read more

It had been almost 2 weeks since our last soaking rainfall, so the quick drenching we received between 10-1 PM was welcomed by lawns & gardens that had begun to dry out.  However, the weather pattern that has been keeping us mostly dry, is setting back up for later this week that will bring a repeat threat for severe storms over areas that were battered by tornadoes over this past weekend.  Let me explain what is happening and show some graphics confirming the pattern. We begin with the upper air flow. The trough over the West & a ridge over the East continues as yet another ..read more

Since the upper pattern continues to remain stalled, with a trough over the Rockies & a ridge over the east, the results are very different.  Since this pattern means no fronts coming for us, we've had a terrific weekend for the major outdoor events.  But look at what other folks are dealing with depending on location.  We begin out west. Even places like Phoenix & Las Vegas are in the 70s & 80s compared to near 100 just a few days ago.  head over to the eastern states and it's very much Spring. In addition, the bottom graphic has 60+ dew points su ..read more

Just after I finished dinner last night, I flipped on The Weather Channel to find them in wall to wall coverage of a massive Tornado in Iowa.  I was riveted watching multiple chasers follow this monster with TWC showing views from different sides of the storms.  It was thrilling, yet sobering as I remember Mike Bettis & 2 photographers were injured trying to outrun the El Reno tornado back in 2013.  The the same day, veteran tornado researcher/engineer Tim Samaras & his son  were killed by that same tornado.  Look at the pictures I grabbed off TWC. Can ..read more

We have 2 huge outdoor events this weekend where dry weather determines attendance.  In addition, the PGA Zurich Golf Classic has a Tiger-like attendance draw in Rory McElroy.  I was out there watching from the 17th grandstand with my golfing partner Marvelous Marvin Bernstein & his son Ken.  What a view we had (not of Rory) of one of the many gators that stopped play as he/she strutted across the 17th tee box. We left the stands later to go find Rory. The rain chances for this weekend are not zero, but any shower would be brief and should not make much of an impact ..read more

If you have been in a cave & missed all the main preseason Hurricane predictions, go back into hibernation.  Most of us have heard the awful numbers (25-30+ named storms) being throw out there based on record warm waters and the oncoming La Nina.  I have not seen anybody come out with a below normal/average prediction.  So how could we reach those high number you ask?  Try naming every little swirl out over the oceans despite the fact it'll impact no one.  Case in point, NHC's watching an area off of Africa. Why?  Can you see it?  Look at the yellow arrow ..read more