WAFB FirstAlert Weather Blog

Another 'Freeze' on the Way!

- Tuesday, March 26th

 

Metro Airport just missed tying the record for Tuesday’s low, dipping to 33°. But Weather Watchers and WAFB viewers across most of the Florida Parishes and all of SW Mississippi reported a morning freeze. At McComb, the freeze lasted about 4 hours ... at Hammond Airport, the freeze was just over an hour long.

 

We’ll see another round of brief freezes for Wednesday morning. In fact, we’re thinking temps for Wednesday’s sunrise may be a degree or two (or three?) lower than those for Tuesday morning. Durations won’t be all that much longer than what you experienced on Tuesday morning, but it should mean an “official” freeze for Metro Airport this go-around.

 

 

High pressure will settle right overhead this evening and overnight: that means tonight’s winds should be much lighter than those recorded through much of late Monday night and early Tuesday morning. We believe that it was the wind last night that slowed the Monday evening temperature fall and kept Metro AP just above freezing throughout. In fact, with Metro AP temps still in the upper 40°s at 11:00pm Monday night, I was surprised that the airport actually got down to 33°. But the winds subsided between 3:00-4:00am, allowing the temp to drop from 41° at 3:00am to 33° at 7:00am.

 

By Wednesday afternoon, that same surface high pressure will be moving to the east, allowing the start of some east to southeast flow and bringing Gulf air back into the viewing area. As you well know, that will start a slow warming trend, with highs climbing into the low to mid 60°s for Wednesday afternoon and highs back into the “March-like” 70°s for Thursday, Friday and into the weekend.

 

Our forecast stays dry through Friday, but we bring a slight chance of rain into the Saturday forecast. Highs on Saturday should reach the upper 70°s.

 

Easter Sunday is looking a little dicey. We think that all should remain dry for area sunrise services although there is likely to be a decent cloud deck and/or some areas of fog in the morning. And for the young’uns, we’re thinking that most of the morning egg-hunts should be okay. But guidance is indicated scattered showers and a few t-storms by the afternoon. For now, we’re posting rain chances for Sunday between 30% to 40% -- not an all-day washout and as of now there are no early indications of a severe weather threat. With a little luck, you could get through the day, including that backyard crawfish boil, without any rain.

 

 

The extended outlook for Monday and Tuesday remains “unsettled,” with a cold front currently projected to move north-to-south through the lower Mississippi Valley on Tuesday.