8/19 - 6pm - Tranquil Weather for the Workweek

Mississippi State University

It's that time of year again when I switch over blog post content to cover Mississippi and West Tennessee in place of the Louisville area. I do this for two reasons: 1) It's difficult to write about the day-to-day goings on of weather back home in Louisville when I'm taking a full college course load at Mississippi State that requires me to keep up with and forecast weather for the Golden Triangle area here in Mississippi and 2) I'm convinced that it is better to forecast for the area which you are currently living in because you're always aware (sometimes painfully) of how accurate your forecast is. If anything significant happens back home in Louisville I'll be sure to include it in my posts here over the next few months, but for now I'll be covering weather down here.

While it was supposed to be a rainy day across the Golden Triangle today we actually saw quite a bit of sunshine and nice weather. A front that has become stationary over Central Mississippi put us in a much drier environment and this has cut off most of the needed moisture for showers and storms to fire up. There's still a chance that a few isolated showers and storms will get going around the region but that's a potential that will be highest during the early morning hours according to the latest short-range guidance.

The trough that's brought us the front and the cooler temperatures this weekend will continue to do so for most of the workweek as it slides slowly eastward. A lack of surface moisture and building surface high pressure will stave off rain chances and even clouds for the most part until we get close to the weekend. Temperatures this week will be gradually rising through the mid 80's for highs until we get to Thursday. By then stronger southerly flow will be bringing in warmer, moister air from the Gulf and get us back to around 90 for highs as we go through the late week and the weekend. Shower and storm chances will be returning by the weekend.

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The tropics have been fairly quiet as of late near the US coastline but there's potential for that to change next week. A disturbed area of weather in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is on a course that may take it toward the East Coast if the latest computer models are to be believed. It's way too early in the ballgame to discern whether or not this will be a threat to the US since it could curve back out to sea before hitting land or not strengthen into a tropical storm or hurricane. This will be something to keep a close eye on since it could become Tropical Storm Isaac.