MS News Now, First Alert Weather Blog

Temperatures on the rise, Heather Sophia explains

Today: Afternoon highs will again be in the low to mid 90's under partly cloudy skies. Overnight lows will be in the low 70's.

Tonight: Expect mostly clear skies with temperatures falling into the lower 70's. 

After that: Expect afternoon highs near the mid 90's and overnight lows in the 70's. We'll start to introduce a slight chance of rain later in the week.

Tropics: As expected, Fred strengthen to a Hurricane overnight Sunday. He's packing winds of 75 mph and moving northwest at 12 mph. It looks like this storm will weaken later in the week. It's no threat to us for now.

The normal high for today is 91 and the normal low is 69. The severe drought situation continues to unfold in Mississippi as we're more than 4.5 inches below normal since June 1. Burn bans continue for many counties across the state. 

Heather Sophia
Meteorologist
WLBT-TV/WDBD-Fox 40
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Rain - Rain - Please Come Back!

We're officially under a severe drought situation in parts of central Mississippi. If you live anywhere in the dark brown shaded area, that means you. This includes parts of Hinds, Rankin, Madison, Leake, Scott & Smith Counties. Everyone else is under a moderate drought or abnormally dry situation. 

Here's how the drought conditions looks per the numbers. The last time we had more than 0.25" of rain was on July 5th. We received 1.23" of rain in Jackson that day. Since June 1, we've received 8.33" of rain. Normal rainfall totals since June 1 should be 12.84 but since we've only received 8.33" of rain since June 1, we're about 4.5" below normal!

What does this all mean? Burn bans have been issued for many counties because of the drought. For the most updated list of counties included and the expiration dates click here. Bans are requested by the County Board of Supervisors. It's the Mississippi Forestry Commission that approves or declines the request. Because we haven't had significant rain in months, burn bans are issued. This means you are prohibited from any outdoor burning and will face a maximum of a $500 fine if caught burning.

We'll also have to watch carefully how our next significant rain event evolves. Depending on how the rain falls, how long it will rain - we could experience flash flooding issues. How so? The rain will penetrate so far into the ground before it will run off. Runoff is rain that doesn't get absorbed into the ground and will runoff into drainage systems. If the drainage systems get back up, we could see flooding. It's something we have to be mindful of as we track our next big weather maker - which doesn't look like we'll see anything like that anytime soon.

Have a weather question? E-mail me at hsophia@wlbt.com and your question my be featured in a future blog post. 

Heather Sophia
Meteorologist
WLBT-TV/FOX 40 WDBD
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Saturday blog with Heather Sophia, soakers for some

Showers and thunderstorms will continue to soak portions of MS this evening through about 8pm. Expect brief downpours, gusty winds and frequent lightning. Otherwise, expect partly to mostly cloudy skies. Temperatures will fall into the upper 70's by 8pm and followed by the mid 70's by morning.

By daybreak Sunday morning, we could see patchy to dense fog develop. The best place to expect fog

First Alert Forecast Model at 11am Sunday

would be in any place that it rains on Saturday evening, rural areas and along rivers and lakes. Be sure to use your low beams rather than your bright lights during foggy weather. Using bright lights will only bounce the light right back at you.

A 30% chance of rain is expected Sunday after lunch. Highs will be in the lower 90s and it will feel fairly muggy. There may be an hour or two where it may feel as hot as 100°. Rain chances will diminish near 8pm Sunday.

Next week we can expect slight rain chances on Monday and then dry weather will take over once again. Afternoon highs will be in the low 90's with overnight lows in the low 90's and upper 80's.

Danny is now a Tropical Storm! As expected, Danny continues to weaken. As of Saturday evening, it's packing winds of 65mph making it a Tropical Storm. At its peak, it was a category 3 hurricane. It's now moving west at 14 mph. I expect the storm to weaken a bit more in the coming days as it runs into dry air. We will keep you posted as it is not expected to even reach near Florida until Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

Heather Sophia
Meteorologist
WLBT 3 & F0X40 NEWS Jackson, MS​

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Virga! Vir-What?

It makes for pretty pictures and maybe even a conversation starter in the car - much like many drives with your family and friends, I'm sure at some point you look up in the sky and wonder, how does that happen? The conversation starter today? Virga. In its simplest form, it's rain falling from a cloud but it's evaporating before it hits the ground.  Image 1 is a picture of Virga courtesy NC State University. In it you see a cloud with some 'stuff" coming out of the bottom. They look like thin gray streaks stretching down towards Earth. We identify that "stuff" as virga. It almost looks like someone took a pencil and started erasing the cloud. Another way virga forms is a result of a strong updraft. These are winds associated with a strong thunderstorm. If the winds are blowing into the storm faster than the rain falling, the result - virga.

In the second image I highlighted exactly what I'm referencing. See it now? Technically it's raining in the circled area, but because the air is so warm below the base of the cloud, it's evaporating before it reaches the ground. In some instances, it will show up on our Live First Alert Doppler Radar as rain. And that my friends, can make it tricky to determine whether it's indeed rain or virga. How do we know either way? One way is by your pictures. As stated earlier, these types of clouds make for pretty portraits. Another way to determine if the "rain" is reaching the ground, is knowing the type of air mass at the surface. If it's a very warm air mass and the radar returns are representing very light rain - it may be safe to assume the rain is not reaching the ground. Of course, if there's a weather observation station near this particular cloud, this would be yet another way to help us decipher rain vs. virga. 

I hope you learned something new today! Have a weather question? Feel free to e-mail me and it may be featured in a blog post soon! 

As always, thanks for connecting and watching WLBT!

Best,
Heather Sophia
Meteorologist WLBT-TV/FOX40 - WDBD
hsophia@wlbt.com
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