July 7th Weather Blog

. . .Showers & Thunderstorms Continue Today. . .
. . .Rain Could Be Heavy at Times. . .

Climate Data:  Yesterday, the Baton Rouge Metro Airport officially received 0.61" of rain, and this ended our streak of 31 consecutive days without rain.  However, we still continue our consecutive day streak of 90 degree or higher as we climbed to 91, and the streak is now 29 straight days. 

Short Term:  It is a soggy start to this Tuesday morning across south Louisiana.  Scattered showers and thunderstorms are greeting us, and they will continue through the morning rush hour.  Rain could be very heavy at times!!  Watch for ponding of water on the roadways.  Parts of the Lafayette area have picked up 3 to 7 inches of rain already!!  Otherwise, it is mostly cloudy, warm and muggy with temperatures in the mid 70s.

The showers and thunderstorms will continue this afternoon as the stationary front remains just north of Baton Rouge, or along the I-20 corridor.  Disturbances will ride along it, and they will help to set off the rain.  We will have some breaks in the rain this afternoon, and some sunshine will pop out.  This will help to make the atmosphere unstable by the evening, and another round of storms can be expected.  Some of the storms could become strong with winds to 50 mph, hail, heavy rain, and frequent lightning strikes.  Rainfall totals today could be around 1 to 3 inches, especially south of Baton Rouge.  The chance for rain will be around 80%.  Since we will see a little sun, the high temperature will be around 90. 

Another round of showers and thunderstorms is expected to move through overnight, just like this morning.  Those that do no see any rain will have mostly cloudy skies with lows in the mid 70s. 

Week Ahead:  The active weather patten will continue tomorrow.  The stationary front will still be sitting along the I-20 corridor, and those disturbances will continue to move along it.  That will give us even another round of showers and thunderstorms.  This is great, because we still could use a lot of rain to help out with our drought conditions.  When it is not raining, we will have partly to mostly cloudy skies with high temperatures in the lower 90s.  The chance for rain will be around 60%.

Starting on Thursday, the front will start to weaken, and move to the east.  This is in response to an area of high pressure building in from Texas.  As this happens, we will have partly cloudy skies with scattered showers and thunderstorms.  However, the chance for rain will only be around 40%.  High temperatures will be in the lower 90s. 

The area of high pressure will build even closer to us on Friday, and that will continue to lower our chances for rain.  Right now, we will have partly cloudy skies with isolated showers and thunderstorms, or a 30% chance of rain.  It will be a few degrees warmer with a high in the mid 90s. 

The early outlook to the weekend will call for that area of high pressure to move over us, and that will dry us out.  We will still have a slight chance for a shower (20%), but most of you will remain dry.  We will also start to heat up again with high temperatures in the mid 90s, and lows in the mid 70s.

Tropical Update:  All areas of the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and Atlantic remain quiet.  Therefore, tropical cyclone formation is not expected through Wednesday. 

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