The next 3-4 days will be ideal for those of you who like near perfect beach weather. The winds may be a little too light by this weekend to produce the kind of waves that many of us like, but overall conditions should be just about what we expect for early August, hot and dry. However, those of us who would prefer to see some rain to cool things off a little and provide some relief for our parched gardens,  may have to wait a bit to have even a glimmer of hope.

Still, there is some chance that we could see a slight pick-up in shower activity by mid-week and this may even continue into next weekend. What may happen is that a weak trough and low pressure area may develop and move across the northern Gulf by the middle of next week. Most of these features have been quite weak this summer and have not brought much precipitation to our area. Still, the extra influx of moisture may help. In addition, there is some indication that a TUTT low (basically a pool of very cold air in the upper atmosphere) may drift across the Gulf from Florida by the weekend and add to our rain chances. When these TUTT lows (Tropical Upper-Troposheric Trough) form over the warm ocean waters, they tend to produce thunderstorm activity since air rising from the surface quickly condenses into rainfall when it encounters the layer of cold air aloft.

At any rate, those seem to be our best chances for rain over the next week or so, slim as they may be. Below that is a water vapor image map (courtesy of NOAA) so you can monitor to see if the moisture across the eastern works its way west.  Also below is a map depicting the low pressure trough expected to move across the northern Gulf in a few days (also courtesy of NOAA). Finally, there is a link to a site that explains a little more about TUTT's and TUTT lows:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/A10.html

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