Mild & Dry Through the Weekend

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

WAFB First Alert Quickcast:

- another very cool start for Friday’s wake-up
- looking good, staying dry for Friday & the weekend
- no ‘tropical’ issues in the Atlantic Basin

Today was yet another in our long run of weather beauties. We started the day off with a Metro Airport low of 49°, tying the season’s low thus far (tied with October 5th). 

And a heads-up: unfortunately, Mother Nature has sent us a deck of high clouds from the west this afternoon. That could be an issue for viewing today’s partial solar eclipse -- between about 5pm and sunset for the WAFB viewing area.

Skies will become mainly-clear again later this evening and overnight with temperatures headed back down into the upper 40°s for the Red Stick. After that “almost chilly” start to the day, tomorrow will turn absolutely gorgeous: mainly sunny and a little warmer with highs for the Capital City in the upper 70°s to around 80°. And the weekend? Highs back into the 80°s with sunny to mostly-sunny skies both days and comfortably low humidity. The LSU Tiger faithful will love the afternoon tailgating weather! 

So how much longer can this high-and-dry pattern continue?

Well, we keep it mostly dry through next week too. Not entirely dry, but rain chances will be very low, with a shower or two possible during the latter half of Tuesday and maybe isolated showers for Wednesday. But that’s just about all that we can expect based on the way things look right now. We’re calling for morning lows in the 50°s and 60°s with highs in the 80°s for Monday through Wednesday. We’ve got a weak cool front trying to make its way into the lower Mississippi Valley early Wednesday, but NWS guidance essentially washes the front off the weather map before it arrives in our area. Even so, the approaching front will signal the arrival of slightly cooler and less humid air at mid-week, taking temperatures down a few degrees by Thursday and likely delivering another run of dry weather through next weekend.

Yes, most of us wouldn’t mind a little rain right about now.

It’s “quiet” in the tropics after yesterday evening’s demise of T.D. #9. We are keeping a watch on a bubble of convective action in the extreme northwestern Caribbean as well as the remnants of #9 which is inland over Mexico near the Yucatan ... but neither of these features shows any pending threat of significant tropical development.