Staying Dry on Friday

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

WAFB First Alert Quickcast:

- warm & dry for Friday

- slight rain chances for Saturday

- better rain chances for Sunday

It was a fairly nice day today: mostly sunny skies for most of the day and dew point temperatures running in the low 60°s for metro Baton Rouge.  You may have noticed some high, thin cirrus clouds moving into the viewing area this late afternoon, but those are nothing to worry about.

Our forecast for Friday calls for another nice early autumn day with sunrise temperatures for Baton Rouge once again in the mid 60°s under mainly-clear skies.  The afternoon will feel a little warmer, with highs in the upper 80°s and a slight increase in low-level moisture (more humid ‘feel’ to the air) under partly cloudy skies.  But we expect few if any complaints by the late afternoon and evening: looking good for Friday’s ‘Live After Five’ and high school football across the viewing area.

 

Our forecast for Saturday looks a little better today than it has for much of the week.  We’ll start the day under fair to partly cloudy skies with sunrise temperatures across metro BR in the upper 60°s.  Cloud cover will increase through the day, but we’re less concerned about a “wet” afternoon than in previous forecasts.  Earlier in the week we were calling for scattered afternoon and evening showers across the WAFB viewing area, but the latest indicators now suggest only isolated rains for the afternoon and evening.  That’s good news for Tiger Tailgaters and everyone else hoping to enjoy some outdoor time. 

The models are still differing on the rain coverage over the weekend, especially for Sunday.  The models agree on the development of an area of rain that moves into the Gulf Coast states over the weekend, but “where?” is the question.  Some of the guidance brings it into Louisiana during the latter half of the day on Saturday, while other models suggest that most of the rainshield moves inland to the east of our viewing area, keeping us more dry than wet, especially for Saturday.

For now, we’re keeping rain chances for Sunday at about 50-50 or so for the viewing area.  Unlike Saturday, rains could develop on Sunday morning and continue in an “on-and-off” pattern through much of the day before tapering off towards the evening.  We’ll keep a slight chance of rain in the overnight and early Monday forecast, with fair to partly cloudy skies for the better part of Monday.

Lows will run in the upper 60°s to near 70° through the weekend and into next week with afternoon highs in the upper 80°s each day.

And nothing of any real concern in the tropics.