The Farmer's Forecast: Bye-Bye Beryl

By Nick Mikulas

Louisiana Farm Bureau News/Cenla Weather

What a wild ride Beryl was for parts of Louisiana. The National Weather Service in Shreveport and Lake Charles issued a combined 93 tornado warnings over their Parish/County warning areas. Those weren’t all in Louisiana, but at least 12 tornado tracks have been verified across Louisiana. Rainfall totals were manageable, and in most cases, beneficial across the state. And now, it’s right back to summer in Louisiana.

Summer in Louisiana means heat and humidity, though it’ll be pretty typical heat and humidity, with highs in the 90s, and lows in the mid to upper 70s. Rain will remain scattered, with a few strong storms mixed in each afternoon. Around next Thursday, it looks like an upper level system will drop in from the north. Moisture will pool along a front that will hang up to our north, and I think that’ll mean increased rain chances for late next week and next weekend. Until then, expect daily coverage of rain in the 20-40% range.

Regarding the tropics, they look calm. Models, and their ensembles aren’t hinting at any sort of local threat over the next couple weeks. Couple that with some decent rain chances in the near future, and it’s about as smooth sailing as it gets this time of year. Oh, and if you’re keeping score at home, here in Alexandria, we’ve had 42.83 inches of rain for the year. Last year, we had 42.23 inches for the whole year. We surpassed all of last year’s rain by July 5th this year. I’m confident there are no complaints.