Although we’ve seen a couple of showers on Titan9 Doppler today, mainly to our west, it looks like we are done with ‘wet’ weather for a while -- and just in time for the weekend!
The slow-moving front that helped spawn Wednesday’s active storms has sagged southward far enough to allow some drier air to filter into the WAFB area -- you likely noticed the cool start to the day with lows in the 50°s and the less-humid feel to our air through the afternoon. Even so, there was just enough moisture hanging around, along with daytime heating, to kick-off a shower or two.
In the short term, we can’t entirely rule out a rogue shower on Friday afternoon, but the weather scenario we expect really doesn’t offer much of any chance for an afternoon shower in our viewing area. And Saturday and Sunday look even “drier,” so put away the umbrella and get ready for some warm but enjoyable weekend days.
And what a local line-up this weekend: the spring’s first “Live After Five” gets rolling on Friday at 5PM, the downtown Baton Rouge Blues Fest kicks-off at 11:30AM on Saturday, and the annual Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival opens Friday and runs right through Sunday!
We’re expecting dry but breezy days for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With surface high pressure to our east and low pressure to our west, we’ll get a fairly steady return flow going -- winds from the southeast and south off the Gulf. Sustained winds can be expected to occasionally run in the 10-15 mph range with the pressure pattern set-up. Nothing too strong, just some good kite-flying weather!
During our on-air weathercasts this week, we’ve also been talking about the upper-level ridge over the west-central U.S. that has been slowly working eastward. As the ridge becomes centered over the Mississippi and Ohio valleys during the next few days, it will take command of our local weather and keep us dry. Remember, ridges generally promote sinking air at the upper levels, and that sinking creates a “lid” on the atmosphere that inhibits the vertical development of clouds -- and vertical development is necessary for a cloud to ‘grow’ into a rainmaker.
The ridge will not only keep us fair and on the warm side through the weekend -- with highs in the mid 80°s for many of us on Saturday and Sunday -- but it will also serve as a “blocking” mechanism that will keep a storm system locked in place over the Plains until the start of next week. By late Sunday into Monday, however, the upper-level ridge shifts farther to the east, opening the door for the Plains system to also advance eastward.
Based on the current outlook, a cool front linked to the Plains storm will approach the Louisiana state line on Monday and begin moving into the WAFB viewing area from the west by the early part of Tuesday -- we’re anticipating good rain chances with that system.
But once the front exits to the east, the extended outlook is promising for the latter part of the work week and into NEXT weekend!
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