I Found Some Relief!

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First of all, the 2013 summer contest ends Saturday.  As of late August 29th, we're at  8139 degrees.  I'll keep you updated how this shakes out.

Before I get into the relief down the road, today (Thursday) marks 8 years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast.  I remember well waking up that morning to the sound of rain and thunder here in Little Rock as a far outer band reached Arkansas. The storm had very little impact here, but we all recall sitting in front of our TV's stunned at the scenes along the coast. 

Here's an incredible image of Hurricane Katrina prior to landfall courtesy of NOAA

We finally have some relief to talk about!  The strong ridge of high pressure is parked over the central United States.  This will move westward allowing a northwesterly flow to develop and this will help drive a front into the state late this weekend.  Cooler and drier air will follow.  How cool?  I think there's a good chance we'll have highs in the upper 80s and lows well into the 60s with less humidity next week.  We're going to have patience as we must endure highs in the upper 90s to near 100 through Sunday.  The westward movement of this high is really no surprise.  It has been the pattern all summer.  When the high moves eastward, we heat up and dry out. When it moves towards the Rockies, we begin to cool down.  The maps below will explain.

Here's the current pattern.  There's a large ridge and it's parked over the central U.S.  This is putting a lid on thunderstorm development and keeping up hot and dry.  There will be a very weak disturbance I addressed on my facebook page which will bring a slight chance for a shower or storm over NW Arkansas Friday.  The ridge keeps the jet stream locked up well north of the state not allowing any organized storm system to move into the region.

By the beginning of next week, the ridge moves towards the west.  This will place Arkansas in a northwesterly flow aloft and this will help drive a cool front into Arkansas late Sunday into Monday.  RELIEF!!!  However, the bulk of the cooler air will remain north and east of the state.