The New Orleans area will see a good bit of rain this weekend, but will that rain be enough to pull us out of our ongoing drought?
"We're going to see substantive improvements," LSU Health climatologist Barry Keim said. "We're looking a whole lot better right now than we were at this time last week."
According to Keim, the United States Drought Monitor lists Louisiana in a severe drought, about five inches below normal rain levels for this time of year. However, Keim says we that we should see that status improve significantly with this weekend's rainfall.
"The expectation is anywhere between one-and-a-half to two inches, and that'll take another bite out of the drought," Keim said. "We're going to see some good improvements because of the rain we've had. We've had three to five inches of rain across a large swatch of Louisiana."
Keim warns that this rain event won't fully cure for our dry conditions.
"The drought is not gone," Keim said. "In fact, I suspect New Orleans is going to have some lingering parts of drought."
Keim also warned to be careful what we wish for because too much rain too quickly could lead to flooding.
"May 3, 1978, comes to mind, although there are several others that have occurred in May where we'll get these 10-inch soakers, which will certainly put all of this to rest, but it will cause a whole host of other problems in the process," Keim said.
