Good Looking Weekend Ahead!

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

WAFB First Alert Quickcast:

- fair skies through the weekend and into next week
- 60°s return for the next several days

“Welcome back, Mr. Sunshine! Adios to the clouds and cold!”

As we expected, well over half of the WAFB viewing area dipped to freezing or below earlier this morning under those mainly-clear skies. Those clear skies also meant plenty of sunshine through the day, although the light northerly flow slowed the daytime warm-up. Still, most WAFB neighborhoods reached the mid to upper 50°s with a few flirting with 60° -- a big improvement over the past three overcast days when highs topped-out in the 40°s!

We’ll stay with mainly sunny afternoons throughout the weekend too, with the good stuff extending right through Monday, Martin Luther King Day.

Yesterday we talked about another light freeze for Saturday morning, but we’ll back off of that just a little for the Red Stick. Now it looks like a Saturday morning start that will still get well down in the 30°s, but most in and near the Capital City may dodge 32°. However, the freeze line won’t be all that far to the north Baton Rouge: communities there should expect a light freeze again for Saturday morning, but only for a couple of hours at most.

Then the welcomed but slow warm-up that started this afternoon continues as we climb into the 60°s for Saturday afternoon … okay, some WAFB communities north of the LA/MS border may only top-out in the upper 50°s. But hey, after the previous few days, that will be just fine! Sunday morning starts out chilly too -- ranging from the mid 30°s north to the low 40°s south -- but fair skies and sunshine should mean low to mid 60°s for just about everyone into Sunday afternoon.

If you’ve been watching our weathercasts over the past few days, we’ve been noting a cold front that will swing through the lower Mississippi Valley on Sunday morning. But it will be a “dry” front -- in fact, it brings a few clouds at most and really doesn’t provide much of a cold-air surge either. Many of you won’t even notice it.

Monday, MLK Day? Looking good too as we get into the mid to upper 60°s for afternoon highs.

Our forecast stays dry through mid-week, although we anticipate the next front to arrive on Wednesday. Based on our guidance, Wednesday’s front arrives “mainly dry,” but stalls along the coast. It lingers there for a day or two, picking up Gulf moisture and getting a little upper-air support (lift): that means rain returns for Thursday into early Friday. But the way it looks for now, the frontal complex heads east on Friday, taking the rains with it.

If that scenario pans out, it should leave us with somewhat cooler but dry weather for NEXT Saturday and Sunday.

In the meantime, enjoy THIS weekend ... and enjoy the sunshine!