Great Pool & Beach Weather

Our noticeably warm up will feature afternoon high temperatures at or slightly above 90 starting Friday. If you are lucky enough to live near the Lake or Sound, highs will stop about 85 with a decent afternoon sea breeze. Sunny skies will run through next Wednesday, then a tail end of a cold front will bring a chance of showers or storms for next Thursday.

Very little to say here with this Foreca graphic for Slidell airport. Areas 15 miles or more inland from the Lake or Sound — or places like Baton Rouge which aren’t near either could run a couple of degrees warmer. Locations on the water could be 5 degrees cooler.

Expect A cold front looks to make it through late next Thursday May 22 giving us a chance of a brief shower of thunderstorm late Wednesday May 21 ahead of the front, more likely in the Baton Rouge-Hammond-Covington-Bogalusa area. Showers and storms a bit more likely the next afternoon for all of us, still not expecting much rain. Sunny skies should return for Friday - Sunday Memorial Day weekend with high temperatures more pleasant, mid 80s.

About that early season tropical development….certainly not happening in May. The following graphic shows the long-range European model precipitation compared to average for the week ending June 4 on the left, and June 15 on the right. There’s no moisture to work with in much of the Gulf (brown is below normal) in early June. Moisture starts to increase by mid-June (green is above normal), so if anything happens it won’t be until then and models would seem to favor the Eastern Pacific more than the Caribbean or Gulf - but we’ll see.

Foreca graphic for Pensacola Beach shows strong SW winds through Thursday and rip currents, lessening a bit on Friday, and becoming more typical sea breeze starting on Saturday. Saturday and early next week there will be lovely with highs mid 80s and water temperatures warming to about 78. One of the best times of the year in terms of weather begins now and extends through July 4.