January Recap; February Starts Wet

Can you believe we're still in the heart of winter? It certainly was difficult to tell today, with highs climbing into the mid 70°s -- about 15° above-normal for late January.

Our warm close to the month seems fitting since temperatures were generally well above-normal throughout January. Check out some of the details for Baton Rouge below:

While we were warm area-wide during January, rain totals were highly variable. In general terms, it was much wetter north of the I-10/I-12 corridor, while areas south of the interstates were much drier-than-normal.

The forecast for the remainder of the week into the weekend offers some hope for needed rains in those areas that have been dry in recent weeks. We've already seen isolated showers bubbling up in the area today, but more widespread activity should develop late tonight into Wednesday.

It appears as though there is the potential for an axis of locally heavy rains to setup somewhere, but pinpointing the exact location is proving difficult. Ultimately, many of us should see 1"+ of rain over the next 24 hours, with local amounts of 2" to 3" or more possible in heavier storms.

We should get somewhat of a break from the rains on Thursday before more wet weather arrives Friday and Saturday. The extended forecast features a lot of uncertainty at this point, so we'll have to continue to fine-tune the details in the coming days. It does appear as though there could be some weather impacts for area parades this weekend. Stay tuned...