Excessive Rain Threat Possible for Louisiana Before Week’s End
Louisiana has not had a lot of rain to talk about over the past four to six weeks. The Louisiana Drought Monitor shows that severe drought has crept back into portions of Cameron, Calcasieu, Jeff Davis, Allen, and Acadia parishes. Many of the neighboring parishes next to those parishes are in a state of moderate drought because of the lack of rain.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service do not think that the current dry weather event will be anything like the drought we experienced in late 2023. As you might recall drought decimated Louisiana's crawfish industry and another soft season won't be good for our crawfish farming families.
The good news is that forecasters do anticipate rain in Louisiana's forecast. The bad news is that portions of Louisiana could receive a lot of rain over a short period of time. When the rainfall rate is higher than the ability of the particular location to drain that rain away it is called an "excessive rain event".
Most of us have experienced these excessive rain events on Ambassador Caffery Parkway after a sudden deluge leaves the roadway immersed in rainwater and virtually impassable except for those who drive big trucks and are jackasses. Sometimes, those people are one and the same.
The Weather Prediction Center has placed a large portion of Louisiana at risk for an excessive rainfall event on Thursday. That area could be expanded when Friday's forecast is updated. The graphic from the WPC is below.
The extended forecast for South Louisiana does show that once the rain moves out of the area on Friday we'll have a few days of nice weather. Then the next threat of showers and storms will move into the area by early next week. Again, we could use the rain, just not all at once.
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