Good Friday to one and all and welcome to our long holiday weekend! The unofficial end to summer will go out on a pretty tranquil note around here. That can’t be said about the tropics as we are going into one heck of a busy period and one that is likely to be in our memories for years to come.

Before we go to the tropics… let’s talk about our weather with the all important headlines.

1. Friday will see partly sunny skies with temps warming into the mid and upper 80s ahead of a cold front that will swing in by the end of the day.

2. That front will produce some scattered showers and thunderstorms by later this afternoon into the evening hours and could interrupt some high school football action. Scattered is the key word here.

3. Saturday and Sunday look pretty good with slightly cooler temps and lower humidities. Highs will range from the low to mid 80s.

4. The weather over in littlebrotherville looks good for my Cats to pluck the Cardinals!

5. Labor Day will be much warmer with temps hitting the upper 80s to near 90 as the humidity returns. Can we get a stray storm across the south? Possibly.

6. Most of next week looks pretty warm as we await a cold front and anything that MIGHT come from the tropics by the end of the week.

7. Any forecaster referencing the GFS and the GFS only should never be allowed to forecast again! Seriously… this model is so out of touch right now that it really isn’t funny and it simply cannot handle everything that is going on. Go ahead NWS… refer to it and blindly follow it this weekend and next week. The blog will be waiting for you!! haha

Okay Okay… to the tropics and our twin terrors Gustav and Hanna. The following set of maps will update for you each time they get new images so make sure you check back. Here is the sat shot…

goes east infra red hurricane sector image

The latest track and info on Gustav from the National Hurricane Center…


[Image of 5-day forecast of predicted track, and coastal areas under a warning or a watch]





























And the hurricane model tracks…





This will likely become a category 3 or greater storm as it enters the Gulf Of Mexico this weekend and continue to strengthen all the way to wherever it decides to hit land. The NHC and the models say Louisiana is the prime target for this storm and that is a safe choice right now. In reality… anywhere from the Florida panhandle to Texas should be on high alert. Looking at everything… I would not be surprised if this storm actually didn’t wind up coming farther eastward toward Biloxi or Mobile. On thing the models have been doing this year is overplaying the strength of east coast ridges. This would be what steers Gustav and if this high is weaker… it will likely end up hitting land farther east. Either way… this is going to be one bad storm!

Hannah is ready to become a hurricane and will slowly move to the northwest then west over the weekend into early next week. Here is the latest NHC track…


[Image of 5-day forecast of predicted track, and coastal areas under a warning or a watch]
































Hanna may come calling on Florida as a major hurricane by the middle and end of next week. There are no less than 3 other systems in the Atlantic that may develop into storms over the next week.

I warned you several weeks ago that the tropics would explode before August was over! Let’s just hope no one get’s hurt out of any of these systems. It’s easy to get carried away and marvel at these storms but we have to remember how the effect real peoples lives. God bless em!

I will update many times over the weekend. Did you expect anything else from the blog? Holiday? The blog doesn’t know the meaning of the word!

Take care!