More smoke, no rain and some future tropical action?

Well, what a lovely weekend we have ahead of us... I am actually pretty excited about the weekend. In addition to Carolina Mike coming to town, I've got several other friends visiting. The people with the leaning garage are in town to clean out the garage before it is taken down, so we'll be visiting with them and helping them out. Also, my friend from New Orleans, (he was living in Slidell when Katrina came through, so he evacuated, but he lost everything including his job, when the building was destroyed, but he has recovered fine) will also be in town, so we plan to have lunch with him. Monday, I have one of the kind guys from the local amateur radio community helping teach hubby and I how to get the most out of our amateur radios. I know all the stuff I needed to pass the test, but the funtional use knowledge is lacking. I am hoping he will get me over my hesitation. All-in-all, it's a busy weekend planned for us amidst the smoke. I will also be buying last minute supplies for our chase experience, which begins next weekend. Did I mention that in 8 days, I will be in the plains???

Local weather... Bryan's forecast discussions are looking a lot like Kelly's now, and y'all know how much I love Kelly's AFDs. Let me see what he had to say... Yep, we're still ridging it. The smoke plume is still headed our way. Healthily capped sky. With the strong persistent ridging taking its stronghold on us, not looking at any significant POPS. Only chance (the dreaded silent POP) is where sea breezes could potentially collide in the late afternoons or evenings. Not looking for that to happen anytime too soon though. We should continue to remain rain free. Although a silent POP remains in place for Monday, there are signs in a couple of the models that the ridge might try to break down during the day on Monday, which would open the door to some much needed sea breeze convergence. At least temperatures are being held at bay as the sun is obstructed by the thick smoke, and we're not having to deal with extremely uncomfortable humidity levels. See, a silver lining. Wouldn't Pollyanna be proud?!

Some interesting discussion comes in the long term discussion as the models are failing to see eye to eye, once again. The ECMWF has a low generating late next week in the lower Gulf of Mexico and then sliding up our way, which would be a true God send... Unfortunately, the NHC and GFS have varying opinions. The NHC think that the ECMWF is exagerating the low potential, and the GFS pushes another doggone ridge over us... Let's hope the ECMWF has it right... despite what everyone else thinks... little do they know, that ECMWF forecast is actually foretelling our much needed Tropical Storm Barry... What??? I can hope. I guess we'll need to wait and see. It's pretty obvious to me that since I'll be leaving Sunday, we should get some pretty potent weather here at that time. That seems to be the way it works, right? lol

Hubby just came in to the office in a panic saying that AMO Complete Moisture Plus contact solution can cause blindness, and CNN apparently was telling people to throw away anything that's been in contact with it. Conveniently enough, that's the only solution that I have found that works for me, so I will have to talk to my eye care specialist and find a suitable alternative and throw away tons of solution since I had some for travel, some in my purse, some on back up for when I run out. My only contacts that I have right now were soaked in it. All my little storage thingies have it in there... Hubby expected me to just throw it away right now, but uh... NO! I have been using it since November, so a few more days for me to find a replacement will have to do. I have not found anything anywhere to support the story or explain it more. I did find info about specific lots of the stuff that were recalled back in November, but nothing current or even regarding all solution, even on the CNN site which is the channel that generated his panic. Sheesh.

I'd better get started on my busy day.

Toodaloo and Happy Saturday! Hope everyone enjoys this long weekend!
~Dewdrop