#BlameTuesday or #BlameThursday for bad weather in south Mississippi

It was been a very active start to 2016 in the weather world. Across south Mississippi, folks say is seems like Tuesday and Thursday are the two days of the week when one would be most likely to see storms. Because so far in 2016, it seems like every Tuesday or Thursday has featured a storm somewhere.

But how accurate was that feeling? Well, let’s take a look back at the forecasts and the observations to see.

Now we go to Ollie Williams…

Since the start of 2016 there have been 27 Tuesdays or Thursdays in total. 14 Tuesdays (including tomorrow) and 13 Thursdays (excluding the upcoming Thursday.

There have been thunderstorms on 13 of those 27 days. That is a whopping 48.15 percent! In other words, for each month, it would storm on either a Tuesday or a Thursday in each week. Nearly one or the other. Breaking it down even further, there were severe storm reports on eight of the 27 days. That is just shy of 30 percent! That is a one in three chance!

Screenshot from 2016-04-04 15:54:27

So, during 2016, if there wasn’t a severe storm in south Mississippi on Tuesday and then Thursday there wasn’t a storm, either…. then there was a very, very good chance there would be a storm on the following Tuesday.

Moisture is the essence of wetness

Screenshot from 2016-04-04 15:59:53And severe weather, Zoolander! The question is, which day -Tuesday or Thursday – has been more severe?

This one wasn’t even close. Thursday. By a landslide.

There were six Tuesdays out of the 14 total Tuesdays this year where we had storms. Only two of those had severe weather – or about 15 percent of time..

The area saw storms seven of the 13 total Thursdays. That’s more than half of the time! And there was severe weather on six of those! That’s 46 percent of the time – almost half!

Ready to have your mind blown?

In March, the area was particularly active. The area saw storms and measurable rainfall on eight of the ten Tuesdays or Thursdays. Only the 15th and the 22nd were dry with no storms. And five of the eight days with storms there were severe storms. That’s almost 63 percent of the time!

The Future, Conan?

Tuesday of this week we will be clear and sunny. Thursday, maybe some lingering storms from the night before, but we should stay dry and storm free. Next Tuesday we could see some more severe weather, though. So perhaps the cycle is switching back to Tuesdays? We’ll see.

Either way, what a crazy start to 2016.



Author of the article:


Nick Lilja

Nick is former television meteorologist with stints in Amarillo and Hattiesburg. During his time in Hattiesburg, he was also an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is a graduate of both Oregon State and Syracuse University that now calls Houston home. Now that he is retired from TV, he maintains this blog in his spare time.