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387 FXUS64 KLIX 071137AFDLIXArea Forecast DiscussionNational Weather Service New Orleans LA537 AM CST Tue Jan 7 2025...New SHORT TERM, LONG TERM, AVIATION, MARINE....SHORT TERM...(Today through Wednesday Night)Issued at 417 AM CST Tue Jan 7 2025Quite the chilly 24 hrs it has been and well it will continue tobe quite chilly for at least another 48 with below normaltemperatures through the forecast. The main fcst problem in the next 36-48 hours is temperatures and where additional headlinesfor wind chills and min temps will be needed.Currently temps are ranging from the upper 20s to mid 30s howeversome of the more typical cold spots have stalled as a thick layerof stratus has drifted in from the east and is hanging acrossportions of southern MS and just across the border into LA. Aftersunrise this cloud deck should begin to slowly erode along theedges and much of the region should see a fairly sunny day todaybefore thicker cirrus starts to filter in form the southwesttonight. You can easily see these clouds coming out of the Pacificand over Mexico on satellite but as we move into more zonal like flow later today and tonight the bulk of these thicker clouds mayhang just south of the area providing a more favorable rationalcooling night tonight. With a very dry airmass in store and chillyafternoon highs as a starting point the stage is set for another cold night with actual lows likely colder tomorrow. We still won'tbe in the greatest radiational cooling set up as those high clouds could impact and LL winds will still be a little on the high side. That could promote a little mixing causing the boundarylayer to not cool quite as fast. If those high clouds sneak in then that will also have some small impact on the temps. However it still looks like widespread freezing temps and even with windsof 5-8 mph there is a good shot of getting wind chills values at or just below 20 across southwest MS and below 25 down to I-12 andacross I-10 over coastal MS. South of that temps should have little problems falling to near or just below freezing. Not everyone will get below freezing across the south but a majority of the area will. With those temps and wind chills the current Cold Weather Adv and Freeze Watch look good and remain in place. Wednesday the pattern begins to amplify as a strong disturbancealready working south across the west coast deepens and digs intothe Baja. This low will close off and continue to dig up halfwaythrough the Baja by late Wednesday. Some weak s/w ridging over TXand into the southern Plains should push the jet off to ournorthwest and with that the cirrus likely lifts north withgenerally clearing skies during the evening hours. This could setthe stage for possibly the coldest night of about half of the CWAas radiational cooling conditions may be the best we will seeover this stretch. High pressure at the sfc will have built insufficiently and is starting to slide east this generally allowsfor a better cold air drainage setup. Combine that with lightwinds and likely clearing skies initially and we could cool offvery quick. This night has the potential to be very cold for thenortheastern half of the CWA with widespread lower to mid 20spossible. With that additional Cold Weather Adv and Freeze Watch/Warnings will likely be needed for some areas Wednesday night. That said, this is highly dependent on two things. The bajalow and how fast/slow it wants to begin lifting out and theassociated sfc low that is expected to develop with it. Modelshave trended slower and this could lead to conditions remainingmore favorable for a much colder thursday morning than previouslyadvertised and that could also come into play with the forecastfor Thursday now. /CAB/&&.LONG TERM...(Thursday through Monday) Issued at 417 AM CST Tue Jan 7 2025This forecast for Thursday through Friday night continues tobecome problematic but interesting. Models continue to come intobetter agreement with timing and location of features but they arealso coming into better agreement with a very impactful forecastacross the south with winter weather likely to wreak havoc onportions of the ARKLATEX and ARKLAMISS however the winter weatheris not the only concern. Locally heavy rain could become quite the concern for the portions of the Gulf coast. It is beginning to look more and more likely that a sfc low willbegin to take shape along the lower and central TX coast Thursdayand slowly work NNE-NE Thursday evening before turning more to theENE-E early Friday. This southern and slower shift in some of themodels makes sense given the L/W trough digging more and moving slower. As additional energy keeps riding south down the back sideof the L/W trough it will continue to try and anchor the base ofthe trough back to the southwest with a very positive titledtrough axis laying out from the Great Lakes back to the Baja. Theslow progression of this L/W trough and increasing southwest flowaloft will have a strengthening mid lvl jet across TX and throughthe Lower MS Valley Thursday night and through Friday with mdlsnow advertising 110 kts across LA and MS Friday evening. Thisincreasing energy will help with the development of the sfc lowbut with the very positive tilt to the trough and associated midlvl energy we will see the LL winds respond with a h85 jet around45-50 kts developing Thursday night and Friday across southeast LAand moving east through coastal MS. This is providing ratherextreme LL WAA and strong LL convergence across our entire CWAwith the nose of the jet moving east across the northern half ofthe CWA just off to the north and northeast of the sfc low. Thesfc low will take a more ENE to east turn following the strong WAA along coastal LA. Very strong upper lvl jet energy will race out across the southern Plains and through the Mid MS Valley and into the TN Valley towards the Tobacco Rd area Thursday night andthen stretch across all of the Lower MS Valley through Mid Atlantic States as well as strengthen. This is going to provide ample divergence aloft over top the strong LL jet. With this dynamic of a system and the very strong kinematic field and setup moisture is going to surge into the area quickly Thursday night and through Friday with some of the models now trying to indicate PWS greater than 1.75". This would be close if not a record depending on the day. It is well abv anything we have measured on Jan 10th but we have 1 measurement on the 11th at 1.86" in 2020 and 00z on the 12th at 1.97" in 2013...otherwise every other measurement from the 10th and 11th is below 1.67. So yeah that is a lot of moisture to work with along with a lot of favorable jet dynamics and lift. The only thing that is lacking is instability.I would not anticipate any sfc based instability inland given thetrack of the sfc low but even elevated instability appears to be lacking. However given the time of the year the very cold air currently in place and the deep L/W trough with a very shallow positive slope it makes sense that we will likely be dealing moderate to heavy showers. Now that is not to say there may not be a rumble or two of thunder and given the highly dynamic set up,slantwise convection could help to provide some elevated instability leading to a few embedded thunderstorms.So with all of the said, the concern is increasing that locally heavy rain is likely going to impact portions of southeast LA and southern MS. There is a Marginal Risk for Excessive Rainfall across pretty much the entire CWA but this is likely just the beginning to stepping up the risk as it wouldn't be a shock to seesome portions of the area under a Slight Risk later today or morelikely tomorrow night. Without getting to detailed in locations because small adjustments will make large differences in impacts it does looks like a rather heavy band of rain will develop to the north and northeast of the sfc low Thursday night and through a good chunk of Friday. That band at this time could set up from southwest LA across the FL parishes and southwest MS and then slowly slide east over that time. Widespread rainfall of 1-3 inches are currently forecast across the entire CWA but if this develops like we are beginning to think that band could easily be more like 3-5 with isolated higher amounts from Thursday through Friday night. Now 3-5 inches of rain over 24-to 36 hrs is not outrageous for our area however given the very cold temperatures we will have been dealing with in the preceding 72 hours the ground will not absorb that rain and we could easily see rain quickly runoff leading to some local flooding concerns. As for winter weather concerns. With the later arrival of rain itshould allow the area to warm up enough Thursday that all raincould be liquid. But and there is a but, the LL will still be verydry and if cloud cover holds off all night Wednesday nightallowing the area to just bottom out for Thursday morning. Then if the clouds quickly try to move in around sunrise that would really hurt the daytime heating and any initial showers could still lead to some light wintry mix, most likely freezing drizzle/rain. That would be very short lived and as we have mentioned the impacts would be more wow and conversational and nothazardous. The slow increase in moisture and virga light rain will not lead to strong evaporative cooling and will moisten up the Lower levels of the atmosphere more so than provide much if any cooling. We still need to watch closely as any more southward shifts or faster approach of the heavy rain could lead to strongerevaporative cooling especially northwest areas. /CAB/&&.AVIATION...(06Z TAFS)Issued at 1143 PM CST Mon Jan 6 2025In general, winds have been dying down as the boundary layerdecouples tonight. The two sites that will stick with the elevatedwinds are MSY and NEW as the north wind off the frictionless Lakekeeps it from decoupling like the rest of the area. Otherwise, dryair will keep VFR conditions around throughout the entire forecastperiod. /JZ/&&.MARINE...Issued at 417 AM CST Tue Jan 7 2025Still a little breezy on the waters this morning and with that SCYand SCS headlines have been extended till noon. After that windsshould relax enough as high pressure builds in. This shouldprovide more optimal marine conditions through Wednesday evening.Heading into Thursday winds and seas will begin to ramp back upand become hazardous through the rest of the week. A Gulf low is forecast to develop and move into the region and bring multiple impacts to the area. /CAB/&&.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...MCB 44 24 45 23 / 0 0 0 0 BTR 49 28 50 29 / 0 0 0 0 ASD 49 25 51 25 / 0 0 0 0 MSY 48 35 49 34 / 0 0 0 0 GPT 48 29 50 27 / 0 0 0 0 PQL 51 26 53 24 / 0 0 0 0 &&.LIX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...LA...Cold Weather Advisory until 9 AM CST this morning for LAZ034>037- 039-046>048-056>060-064>071-076>090. Cold Weather Advisory from midnight tonight to 9 AM CST Wednesday for LAZ034>037-039-046>048-071-076-079>084. Freeze Watch from late tonight through Wednesday morning for LAZ056>060-064>067-077-078-085>090.GM...Small Craft Advisory until 8 AM CST this morning for GMZ530-532- 534. Small Craft Advisory until noon CST today for GMZ536-538-550-552- 555-557-570-572-575-577.MS...Cold Weather Advisory until 9 AM CST this morning for MSZ068>071- 077-083>088. Cold Weather Advisory from midnight tonight to 9 AM CST Wednesday for MSZ068>071-077-083>088.GM...Small Craft Advisory until 8 AM CST this morning for GMZ532-534. Small Craft Advisory until noon CST today for GMZ538-550-552-555- 557-570-572-575-577.&&$$SHORT TERM...CABLONG TERM....CABAVIATION...JZMARINE...CAB