High temperatures in Acadiana topped off at or near the 80 degree marks as expected from yesterday's forecast, with just a few of the tiniest pop-up showers happening this afternoon.
However, winds are already arriving, and bringing with it lots of weather alerts and warnings. I'll break them all down here for what you need to know.
1. Wind Advisory Wednesday
2. Coastal Flood Warning - Due to these strong southerly winds, minor coastal flooding is forecast to become a possible hazard tomorrow, primarily around high tide times.
3. Some River Flood Warnings - These should expire tomorrow morning, and are a lingering result of those large rainfall totals we recently recieved.
Now that we know what to be on the look out for, let's look at some timing and specifics. And then, I'll break down why these winds will be happening.
Sustained winds (or continuous speed winds) tomorrow will fall between 15-25 mph. Gusts will begin as early as tonight and continue through Wednesday, likely later. Max gusts look to be around noon to 2 pm, with gusts estimated to be as high as 40 MPH. Impacts of this means loose outdoor things can blow away, your neighbor will adopt your trashcan, etc. So prepare tonight for those winds. They will barely relax overnight Wednesday, continuing to keep gusts in the 20s.
Low rain chances remain in the forecast, with the few and tiniest pop up showers possible, with winds likely helping to inhibit them or their growth. Until Saturday, once the front is finally expected to arrive.
We are currently under a Day 5 Excessive Rainfall Outlook by the WPC, but this has time to change, intensify, adjust location, so don't get too attached to this quite yet, but definitely something to keep in mind as the ground and rivers are already saturdated.
So NOW for my favorite part, the fun, the WHY. Why are these strong winds, without any active storms, going on?
The atmosphere likes to be balanced, like all of nature. We refer to two types of atmospheric conditions, High Pressures and Low Pressures. The High Pressure always wants to move into and fill the Low Pressure so that they can match. That's where we get wind. Mass is trying to balance out this pressure imbalance.
There is a High Pressure system settled near the Florida Coast.
Currently, there is a Low Pressure system just North of the Texas Panhandle. It is going to be deepening, or getting stronger. (How is a story for another day.)
This will cause a tight pressure gradient (or difference) between the Low Pressure and the High Pressure.
You can see those solid black lines (called isobars, areas of consistent pressure) become more tightly packed as time goes on.
It's in these areas you see really strong winds due to such a strong imbalance as the winds attempt to fill in that low pressure.
The front attached to this low is going to stall, causing that pressure gradient to linger and strengthen over Louisiana as the Low Pressure moves Eastward. Once the front finally pushes through this weekend, the winds will ease up, and we will get the weather caused by the trailing cold front.
Also! Here's your 10 day forecast.
