As expected, the U.S. Drought Monitor upgraded all of Acadiana’s status to a “Moderate Drought”. Rainfall deficits have been running about 8-12 inches below normal this year with most areas receiving less than one half of an inch over the last 6-8 weeks.
Fortunately rain chances will increase this weekend but activity will be mostly scattered in nature but there could be a few spots that could get some relief. Sunday into Monday may be a little more interesting as the atmosphere may become more conducive to meso-convective complex development. These are larger scale thunderstorm clusters that can generally get a much larger area wetter. Upper level winds will be on the rather light side combined with a healthy plume of deeper tropical moisture some areas may actually get some relief from the drought. Check with our FutureCast Models and Power Doppler 3000 for the very latest throughout the weekend
Rain chances should decrease somewhat into next week, but it appears that Acadiana’s overly dry pattern should change favoring at least some slight rain chances and the prospects for more meso-convective complexes as we finish off the last couple of weeks in the month.