Another Freeze for Saturday Morning

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

Recap of Today

We started the day off with a freeze for much of the viewing area, with morning lows dipping a degree or two lower than we had forecasted. All in all, however, Thursday was a rather nice winter day. Sunny skies helped warmed the morning fairly quickly with afternoon highs climbing into the upper 50°s to lower 60°s for just about the entire viewing area.

Tonight - Friday

We’ll see some clouds return through the overnight hours with partly-to-mostly cloudy skies around sunrise as our next cold front passes through the region from the northwest. One or two neighborhoods might -- just might -- get a sprinkle as the front slides by, but in general, this will be another “mainly dry” cold front. By Friday afternoon, skies will have cleared once again as a cold-and-dry Canadian air mass settles over the central Gulf Coast. Friday’s highs will top-out in the mid to upper 50°s for most WAFB communities.

Weekend

The Canadian air mass and dome of surface high pressure sitting over us by Friday afternoon will set us up for another freeze on Saturday morning. But just like today’s morning freeze, Saturday’s freeze should be a fairly short-duration event with lows for metro Baton Rouge in the upper 20°s to around 30° or so. By Saturday morning, the winds will be swinging back around from the southwest under sunny skies with mild Gulf air taking most of the viewing area back into the 60°s for the afternoon highs.

Sunday shapes up to be a another January beauty: after a chilly start with sunrise temps in the low 40°s for metro BR, mostly sunny skies will warm the Red Stick into the mid 60°s for the afternoon high. 

Extended Outlook

The extended outlook into early next week suggests a pair of back-to-back fronts push through the lower Mississippi Valley: the first looks to pass from north-to-south late Monday or very early Tuesday with the second front fizzling out on its way through either late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Although there is time for changes to set-in, at this point both of next week’s fronts look rather “moisture starved,” so we’re not expecting much to come from them. We’ll post a 20% rain chance for both Monday and Tuesday, with another dose of cooler air expected by mid-week.