Twin States Weather Blog

Bugs and Better Rain Chances...

* One of my favorite hobbies is to take meandering drives down local back roads. Sunroof and windows down, Led Zeppelin in the CD player, and my worries are gone! I was out tonight in northern Lauderdale county, near Lake Okatibbee, and noticed the extreme number of insects in the air - and on my windshield! I could barely see the road at times. Believe it or not, the root cause of this is weather.

We did not have a particularly cold winter this year. Harshly cold temperatures tend to kill insects in their larva form, keeping them from ever hatching. But, without a terribly cold winter, there is little to keep the bug population from swelling.

Moral of the story? The next time its 6 degrees outside on a cold January morning and you forgot your gloves, your windshield is iced over, and you are already 10 minutes late; just smile and think to yourself: "At least I won't be drowning in mosquitoes in May!"

* Back to the here and the now: Looks like a pretty decent chance of showers and thunderstorms as we go through tomorrow afternoon. Some of these could be strong or severe, with large hail and damaging straight line winds the main threats. With decent instability and shear in place, we'll have to keep an eye on tomorrow. The flow of air aloft is from the northwest, and this type of setup can often offer up some interesting surprises.

* The weekend looks all right. A few clouds will hang with us for Saturday and Sunday, with highs in the 80's. The same upper trough bringing rain tomorrow will begin to slide back westward, so we have some rain chances in the forecast for Monday and again on Wednesday. The forecast for next week is murky at best.

posted by WTOK Weather Staff @ 9:29 PM