An expansive ridge sat over the southern portion of the CONUS. This ridge caused extreme record-breaking temperatures across much of the south, including southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi.
Every event with a place to put it; 11 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS LIX wrote it up.
An expansive ridge sat over the southern portion of the CONUS. This ridge caused extreme record-breaking temperatures across much of the south, including southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi. The record-breaking temperatures paired with high humidity values caused the heat to be excessive across southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS New Orleans, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 7, 9:27 AM CST, 33 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED
National Weather Service New Orleans LA
1027 AM CDT Mon Aug 7 2023
...NEW UPDATE...
.UPDATE...
Issued at 1025 AM CDT Mon Aug 7 2023
First thing is first, the Excessive Heat Warning is left unchanged
across the entire CWFA this afternoon. In fact, by 9am here at ASD
the heat index value had climbed to around 111F as temps were
91F/81F. So same story different day in terms of the heat. What
about any relief in the form of afternoon showers and
thunderstorms? Well, the 12z RAOB from LIX does NOT give us much
in terms of hope. Plenty of instability and decent mid level
lapse rates exists. However, as insolation increases the drier
air right off the deck will likely mix down somewhat into the
boundary layer increasing the convective temp a bit. Also, very
dry air as per the 12z RAOB and GOES WV imagery point to very
limited convective prob. Given climo a silent 10 for an isolated
updraft or two is needed, but overall much of the area will be
void of cloudiness much less shower and storm activity.
A surface boundary continues to reside north and west of our
region generally from the midsouth through the ArkLaTex region.
Convection will likely form along this boundary off and on,
however, the mean flow will not support any MCS making it into our
region...pending any cold pool propagation. But even then it is
highly unlikely that much would overcome the significant amount of
dry air within the column. (Frye)
&&
.SHORT TERM...
(Today through Tuesday)
Issued at 348 AM CDT Mon Aug 7 2023
Soooo, its August and there's not much that changes from day to day
unless there is a visit from the gulf and there's nothing on the
horizon at the moment. This makes fcasts a bit easier to develop and
we can safely say the bake-a-thon will continue. Temps look to be
very similar in the short term to what has occurred the last several
days. This is like a broken record...speaking of breaking records,
that will continue as well. All sites will at least be near and some
will break their record highs today and again Tue.
Speaking with a wonderful lady yesterday(it was her birthday) who
was born in 1933 told me no one in her town had air conditioning.
After looking this up, I found that air conditioning was not
found in most homes until the 1960s. I write these things because
several of the records that are falling these last few weeks have
come from the 1920s and 1930s...when almost no one had AC. They
did have fans she said, but it makes one think, how did they cope
with this type of heat. It's amazing the strength, endurance and
tolerance the people had in those days. Ok, back to weather. The
upper high that is elongated from the SW CONUS to TX will not be
going anywhere and will actually center itself over TX in the
coming days. An upper trough is currently passing the area and
this is very evident in the 00z sounding as H5 RH levels jumped
from 15% to 45%. This can be seen best in WV imagery, but don't
expect any cloud cover with this, it will take a lot more than 45%
RH to get a cloud even at cirrus level. On the back side of this
upper trough, the upper high will and is currently building back
over the area. There will be a few MCS features moving down the
eastern periphery of the stacked ridge. One of these should start
to develop over NE TX or SW AR this evening. The initial position
of this MCS developing and its trajectory will determine if higher
precip chances will be needed for Tue. But for now, we will keep
these numbers low on the NE fringe of the area and almost non-
existent for the remainder.
&&
.LONG TERM...
(Tuesday night through Sunday)
Issued at 348 AM CDT Mon Aug 7 2023
Unfortunately, there almost seems to be no end to this heat wave. We
know it will eventually break but what will cause it to break is
what we are looking for. Throwing salt on the wound, the extended
portion of the fcast with respect to the global models has shifted
quite a bit, not in a good way. The strongest heating comes when
highs can stack themselves throughout the column which allows air to
sink, compress and warm in a deeper portion of the air column. And
this looks to continue to be the case as the upper high to our west
aligns with the westward extension of the Bermuda High over the
gulf coast and northern gulf. This simply causes the heat to
continue via model solutions. In previous runs, the global suites
were keeping highs near the NBM75 percentile with some breaking of
this heat wave by Sunday or Monday which could have dropped to
the NBM50 percentile. But the latest runs have done a 180 and now
are closer to the NBM90 percentile for highs in the extended. This
would keep the 100F degree days going well into the week and over
the weekend and possibly into next week. We have not bit on this
at the moment since this is the first run to do this and run to
run trends before this showed the opposite. We will let a few more
runs go by before buying into this scenario. For this reason, we
have lowered temps in the extended back to the last fcast package.
And have also dropped precip numbers much lower to values that
are closer to what should be shown in a suppressive environment at
least through Friday. Allowed days 6-8 to stay as is since
confidence levels are not as strong by this time frame.
&&
.AVIATION...
(12Z TAFS)
Issued at 348 AM CDT Mon Aug 7 2023
VFR through this fcast pack. The best chance, which is not very
high, of getting a TSRA will be GPT today. Any storms capable of
developing will dissipate shortly after sunset.
&&
.MARINE...
Issued at 348 AM CDT Mon Aug 7 2023
Surface high pressure remains through much of this week. This will
keep winds peaking to only around 10kt in most areas. The nocturnal
jet that develops mainly across the sounds will be the only areas
that peak around 15 to 20kt during the evening and predawn morning
hours. Storms will be few and far between for the next few days but
some sh/ts could begin to move into the nearshore marine zones from
offshore and in the vicinity of any storms the winds could be
higher.
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
MCB 98 76 96 75 / 10 0 20 0
BTR 101 81 100 81 / 10 0 20 0
ASD 99 81 98 79 / 10 0 20 0
MSY 101 82 98 82 / 10 0 20 0
GPT 97 81 96 80 / 10 10 20 10
PQL 97 81 97 79 / 10 10 20 10
&&
.LIX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
LA...Excessive Heat Warning until 7 PM CDT this evening for
LAZ034>037-039-046>048-056>060-064>071-076>090.
Excessive Heat Watch from Tuesday morning through Tuesday
evening for LAZ034>037-039-046>048-056>060-064>071-076>090.
GM...None.
MS...Excessive Heat Warning until 7 PM CDT this evening for
MSZ068>071-077-083>088.
Excessive Heat Watch from Tuesday morning through Tuesday
evening for MSZ068>071-077-083>088.
GM...None.
&&
UPDATE...RDF
SHORT TERM...TE
LONG TERM....TE
AVIATION...TE
MARINE...TEThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
11 excessive heat. Local standard time, as filed.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
Very hot and humid weather occurred for all of southern Mississippi on August 7th. High temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100 degrees with heat indices were in the 113 to 115 degree range each afternoon.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Mississippi in 2023Every state in 2023This day in weather historyWarnings in Mississippi, August 2023
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1137595, 1137596, 1137597, 1137598, 1137599, 1137600, 1137601, 1137602, 1137603, 1137604, 1137605.