Midday rains yesterday helped to keep the temperatures down a few degrees, only hitting 85 both at Lafayette and New Iberia. The showers avoided the Lafayette Regional Airport, and Acadiana Regional picked up 0.13″. Here at TV3 a light shower moved through around lunchtime.
With our front now stationary over central Louisiana, the moisture is pooled across Acadiana and the Gulf waters. So far this morning the rains have been offshore or right along the immediate coastline. As temperatures warm up this afternoon scattered storms will pop up again. Most of the rain today will be south of I-10. A bit more sunshine this morning should help to boost the temperatures above the 90 degree mark today. The front will linger tonight, but fizzle out tomorrow.
Drier air will move in aloft over the weekend. This should prevent some of the storms during the afternoon. Unfortunately warmer and drier air in the mid and upper part of the atmosphere will hold the humidity right here at the surface. Therefore with more sunshine temperatures will warm back into the mid 90s, and with high humidity, the heat index will be flirting with 105 again Saturday and Sunday. More of a typical summer pattern is setting up for next week, but there will be remnant moisture from an old tropical wave/disturbance (97L) that will roll in our direction. Rain chances will be going up again by Tuesday and Wednesday.
Another disturbance near the Carolina coast seems to be forming a surface feature. Most of the cloudiness and rain associated with this was caused by a front interacting with an upper level trough over the east coast. The disturbance should start to rapidly shoot toward the northeast over the colder waters of the Atlantic. There is a slight chance for development, but right now it looks like it would be more “Subtropical” in nature rather than a full blown “tropical” heat generating system. Another tropical wave that was near the Windward Islands yesterday fell apart this morning.