More rain to come before we start clearing this weekend

Monday's Weather Headline: A few more afternoons of showers and thunderstorms head our way before the weekend. Still watching the tropics... Read on for more details.

What we're tracking: An unsettled weather pattern continues over the Gulf of Mexico with our tropical low pressure system still located right off our coast about a hundred miles away. This low will push a little bit further south deeper into the Gulf the next couple days. This will keep our rain chances high the next few days. Read on in "Next 24 hours" to time out the rain! Going into the midweek, a set of weak upper level low pressure systems will come off the Rockies. These lows will help swing a cold front into the state that was leftover from a large upper level low that entered the East Coast recently. This front will likely not pass through the Crossroads, although a weak portion of it may slightly drop temps and drop dew points. This set of lows coming off the Rockies will also help suck up the tropical disturbance off our coast and force it to push north away from us. This will dry us up going into the weekend. Alert Days: <NONE>

Tropical Activity: Currently in the Atlantic, I am tracking three tropical waves and a tropical low off our coast.

Starting closest to home, the tropical low that has been within a hundred miles of our coast since Wednesday is still with us weakly spinning. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has chances of development with this low at 10%. if anything, this low could ever so slightly deepen to weak tropical depression status by Wednesday, but this is very unlikely unless the low's center pushes deeper into the Gulf by at least another 50-100 miles. With no formation, tropical thunderstorms and occasional breezy wind gusts up to 20-25 mph are the main impacts this week.

Looking at the the three waves, the disturbance entering the Caribbean now will be the most likely of the three waves to have any kind of impact on us in the Crossroads as the other two waves should steer into the Central Atlantic. The NHC has been monitoring the wave entering the Caribbean for the past several days and suggests a 40% chance of tropical depression formation or greater within the next 7 days and a 10% of that in the next 48 hours. We will all need to watch this wave very closely as computer guidance on many platforms widely are not agreeing on anything. Long story short, if this disturbance becomes a tropical depression or greater in the Caribbean by Wednesday, there is a chance it could steer northward into the Gulf by next Monday as stronger tropical systems favor higher latitudes where the Coriolis effect is stronger. If a depression forms by Wednesday, it will likely continue to intensify with extreme all time record heat content in those waters.

Next 24 hours: Showers and thunderstorms are very likely both today and tomorrow with chances at 70% both days. Timing out the rain, spotty showers should start developing around the Crossroads in the late morning after 11 a.m., with thunderstorm coverage becoming more widespread in the afternoon. Storms should become more scattered some time after 1 p.m. Rain activity should be similar tomorrow. No severe weather is expected, although stronger storms, if any, could contain gusty winds up to 30-40 mph, moderate lightning activity, and very heavy rainfall. Highs in the upper 80s with few in the low 90s. Mostly cloudy to cloudy skies ensue for those that don't see the rain.

Extended forecast: Highs continue in the upper 80s but begin rising back to the 90s by this weekend. Rain chances hang on until Thursday, cutting off going into the weekend. See below for your 7 Day Crossroads forecast!

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