Unsettled – That’s Lafayette’s Weather Word for this Week
Last week we spent most of our time looking into the Bay of Campeche or the southwestern Gulf of Mexico watching an area of disturbed weather that would eventually become Tropical Storm Claudette. What's funny about that system is that the center of circulation was well onshore before the National Hurricane Center decided that the storm system had reached the criteria needed to become a named storm.
And just like that, everyone's insurance deductible jumped from the regular deductible to the dreaded "named storm deductible". No, it's not a good thing when these systems get a name when they probably didn't deserve one but that wasn't my call. I think we should all be skeptical of how that designation was made and how it affects policyholders throughout the Gulf South.
This week we won't have a tropical system to worry about but we will have all the benefits of living in the tropics, namely the heat, the humidity, and the threat of tropical downpours. We can expect an enhanced chance of precipitation for most of the workweek as well. By enhanced, I am suggesting that anything over 40% is beyond the norm for a chance of rain in the afternoon during the summertime in South Louisiana.
Throughout most of the nighttime hours, an area of showers and thunderstorms has lingered just off Louisiana's coastline. This moisture and instability could fire up in the form of showers and thunderstorms thanks to an approaching frontal boundary. Granted this frontal boundary is pretty weak. It will still provide enough lift in the atmosphere to get showers and storms rolling early and often across Acadiana.
While we don't anticipate any of these showers or thunderstorms to produce flooding rains there could be a strong enough downpour to cause some incidental street flooding during and just after the deluge. The bottom line is to stay close to us at the radio station and make sure that you have our App downloaded to your smartphone. We suggest you also opt-in for Breaking News, Weather, and Traffic alerts.
Oh, one more thing, the long-range GFS model does show potential tropical trouble entering the Gulf of Mexico by the middle of next week. Let's hope this forecast is proven wrong but just in case it's not. How's that for advance warning?
Actually, no, let's don't think about the tropics. Let's think about the beach instead.
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