WAFB FirstAlert Weather Blog

  -- Jay Grymes
     WAFB Storm Team

Assuming that the Mayans got it wrong, our winter will "officially" begin tomorrow at 5:12am!

The storms rolled through earlier today, and thunderstorm winds did indeed create some problems across sections of southern Louisiana and SW Mississippi. And as expected, temps showed a slow fall throughout the day behind the frontal passage. In addition, the winds were quite brisk throughout much of the day.

Skies will stay clear tonight and the winds will die down once we get past sunset. With dew point temps expected to drop into the 20°s, most of us can expect a light freeze for our Friday morning wake-ups. The Friday morning freezes will be of short durations, so this is not a seriously threatening event -- not a pipe-wrapper and only a problem for the most delicate of plants. Moving the delicates under an overhang near the house or patio should do the trick.

 

 

 

Sunny skies will be the rule for Friday, but it does stay cool with highs topping out in the upper 50°s for metro Baton Rouge. Saturday looks good too, although once again we’ll start the day around the metro area with a brief, light wake-up freeze. But Saturday afternoon stays mainly sunny with highs back into the 60°s as the winds come back around from the southeast.

 

And by Sunday? Goodbye freezes, hello 70° once again! We’ll add in spotty showers for Sunday afternoon and evening, but all-in-all the next three days look good for the last-minute shoppers.

 

Okay ... now the not-so-good news: we’ve got scattered rains in the current outlook for Monday, Christmas Eve. 

 

And the bad news? As of now, rain appears likely for Christmas Day as the current guidance brings the next cold front through Louisiana. In fact, while there remains some wiggle room and uncertainty, early indicators are that the Christmas Day front may indeed be accompanied by some active-to-severe storms. We’ll be watching these developments closely in the coming days.