Looking Good by the Weekend!

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

WAFB Storm Team QuickCast:

- scattered, mainly-light showers tonight and early Friday
- spotty light showers for Friday afternoon 
- looks great for the Easter weekend!

The disturbance over the Gulf of Mexico snuck a little farther north this afternoon than we had expected, helping to generate our afternoon overcast and delivering showers along the Louisiana coast for much of the afternoon. While we’ve even seen a few flashes of lightning to our west in Acadiana and out over the coastal waters, most of the rains across the southern parishes have been rather light, and we expect that rains will stay that way into the evening and overnight.

So yes, we will carry a chance of rain in the Friday forecast, calling for scattered, mainly-light showers for metro Baton Rouge for this evening, overnight and into early Friday morning. Rain chances will be a bit higher closer to the coast, especially areas east of the Atchafalaya Bay. By contrast, rain chances decrease as you move north and west of the Capital City.

By Friday noon, we’re dropping rain chances to less than 20% (“spotty”) for most WAFB communities. That means someone may see an afternoon shower or two, but again, whatever does fall will be rather light and probably not very long-lasting. We can’t entirely rule out a passing shower for Friday’s “Live After Five” but the odds look pretty good that the downtown music fest goes just fine.

As for the Easter weekend, our forecast seems to get better with each passing day. We’ve essentially taken any chance of rain out of the forecast for both Saturday and Easter Sunday, with morning starts in the 50°s and afternoon highs around 80° for both days. Saturday looks nearly perfect for mid April. And whether you’re headed to Easter sunrise services, a mid-morning Egg Hunt, a backyard boil, or just enjoying family and friends, we think you’ll be mighty pleased with Sunday’s weather too.

Our forecast calls for a very modest warming trend through the coming seven days. By early next week, morning starts will be near or even above 60° with afternoon highs climbing into the low 80°s -- temperatures that will be just a tad above the norm but nothing to complain about. We do have a slight chance of rain for Tuesday, but other than that the days look mainly-dry into the middle of next week, at least.