Weather Blog

Dave Nussbaum
dnussbaum@wbrz.com

Short Term:  We begin this Thursday morning off with mostly clear skies, and some fog.  There are also some showers and thunderstorms along the coast coming from the outer rain bands of Dolly.  Otherwise, it is warm and muggy with temperatures in the lower 70s. 

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will develop once again this afternoon.  These storms will be set off by the outer rain bands of Dolly plus daytime heating.  The airmass in place over us is very moist still, and that will make it pretty easy for the storms to develop today.  Some areas could see heavy rain and breezy conditions just like yesterday.  The chance for rain today will be around 40%, so not all of you will see the rain today.  It will be a few degrees warmer today with highs in the lower 90s. 

Tonight, any rain will end, and then we will have partly cloudy skies.  It will be muggy with lows in the lower to mid 70s. 

Weekend Outlook:  On Friday, high pressure will build in across the Southeast U.S., and that will help to lower our rain chances.  However, it will not totally remove storms from the forecast.  You can expect partly cloudy skies with only stray thunderstorms tomorrow with highs in the mid 90s.  The chance of rain will only be 20%. 

Saturday and Sunday will be much like Friday with partly cloudy skies, and only stray thunderstorms.  The chance for rain will be around 20% each day.  It will be hot with highs in the mid 90s. 

Tropical Update:  Dolly officially made landfall around 1:00 PM on Wednesday as a Category 2 hurricane at South Padre Island.  This morning, Dolly is now a Tropical Storm, and it is dumping a ton of rain over south Texas.  Winds are still high at 60 mph as it moves slowly to the WNW near 7 mph.  Rainfall totals will range from 8 to 12 inches, but a few spots could get up to 20 inches!!  South Texas has been in a drought recently, but this may be too much of a good thing.  There was some significant damage along South Padre Island, but minor damage inland. 

Elsewhere. . .there is a broad area of low pressure associated with a tropical wave located about 600 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands.  This system will be slow to develop, if at all, over the next few days as it moves to the west. 

Otherwise, the rest of the tropics are quiet, and tropical cyclone development is not expected through Friday. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you would like to have the Weather Blog in your e-mail Inbox every morning during the week, click here and sign up for FREE! 

Remember you can always get the latest forecast and radar information on Cox Cable channel 18 or Digital Cable channel 125, on www.2theadvocate.com/weather, or by calling the Weather 2 forecast line at (225) 336-2375.