The thunderstorm that moved through Meridian and Lauderdale County Thursday afternoon packed enough wind to knock this tree down into one of two lanes of Front Street at 11th Avenue. Lauderdale County and Meridian law enforcement officers stood by to alert motorists while city crews were called in to clear away the tree. Weather forecasters say this may be the last we see of any significant rainfall for the next two weeks as a strong high pressure system builds into the Southeast beginning today.

    A view of the doppler radar map for the country Thursday showed not much in terms of precipitation. Some scattered thunderstorms were popping up in Mississippi and Alabama but other than that it was pretty quiet.

    Welcome to the summertime weather pattern that has come early this year.

    “We are still four days away from the official start of summer,” says Jim Fairly, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Jackson. “But we are, and have been, in a summer weather pattern.”

    Ten counties in Mississippi are under a burn ban of one kind or another according to the Mississippi Forestry Commission. Some bans restrict burning just on agriculture lands. Others have county-wide bans on every type of burning that can be done outside. Those counties are, Amite, Copiah, George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jones, Lincoln and Marion. MFC Forester Greg Chatham says the reason why Lauderdale County is not currently under a burn ban is that the residents seem to be aware of the terribly dry conditions.

    “You have to give the residents credit for not going out and making matters worse by doing a lot of burning,” Chatham says. “On the other hand, it is awfully hard to talk yourself into starting a fire when it is already a hundred degrees outside so ironically maybe the weather is helping that situation.”

    Lauderdale County Fire Service Coordinator Allan Dover said as long as the residents keep showing this level of responsibility and refrain from burning, he sees no need to ask for a ban.

    “We’ve had a few brush fires here and there but nothing that is reaching alarming numbers,” says Dover. “As long as this trend keeps going, I won’t ask for a ban.”

    Fairly says it might be two weeks, and he emphasized might, before a rainmaker system in the form of a tropical depression reaches the area to drop a significant amount of rain. Until then, he says high pressure and scattered, afternoon thunderstorms will be the norm interspersed with two or three days of high temperatures.

    “This weekend is shaping up to be brutal in terms of temperatures,” says Fairly. “Heat indexes will go well past one hundred degrees.”

    Short term forecasts show a new high pressure ridge building from the west starting today. That will bring back the intense heat and suppress any chance for afternoon showers from today through the first half of next week.