Another Beauty on Wednesday!

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

WAFB First Alert Quickcast:

- stays dry through the week

- mild Wednesday, cooler for Thursday & Friday

- rain on Mardi Gras Day?

Put the umbrellas away ... at least for this week.  Even with a pair of fronts expected to cut through the lower Mississippi Valley -- one tomorrow night and another over the weekend -- it looks like everyone stays dry through Lundi Gras (next Monday).

Too bad we can’t get through the Carnival weekend with the same spring-like temperatures that we had just a couple of days ago.  Sorry, no chance of that -- it’s back to Louisiana winter through the next 7 days or more.

Skies will stay clear through tonight and into early Wednesday, setting us up for morning lows in the 30°s for most of the viewing area.  Expect temperatures to dip into the upper 30°s for the Red Stick with mid 30°s for areas north and east of the Capital City.  Thankfully, sunshine and clear skies on Wednesday should allow for a nice warm-up by the afternoon with highs expected to reach the upper 60°s.

A dry cold front moves through late Wednesday into early Thursday.  It doesn’t impact the morning lows on Thursday … but the cold, dry continental air behind the front will keep highs in the 50°s for just about all of us on Thursday even under mostly sunny skies. 

Then it’s “Hello Freezes!” for Friday morning -- we’re calling for lows in the upper 20°s for metro Baton Rouge, and a few of our Mississippi friends could see a brief ‘hard freeze’ to start the day.  While skies will stay mainly clear through the day, temperatures will struggle just to get into the 50°s for some of WAFB’s neighborhoods thanks to the cold air mass in place.

So .. for Friday night’s Southdowns Parade: it will get cold through the evening so be sure to dress for it.  Temperatures will start off in the low 40°s as the parade kicks-off, and could dip into the upper 30°s by parade’s end.

Then it’s Spanish Town on Saturday.  Sunrise temperatures on Saturday will be cold -- mid 30°s for the Capital City, but mainly-sunny skies should allow for decent warm-up by noon.  We’re expecting highs in the low 60°s for the afternoon, so if you stay out of the shadows, it won’t be bad at all.

Another dry front pushes through late Saturday into early Sunday and that means another notable cool-down.  Our current forecast calls for a Sunday morning start in the low 30°s for Baton Rouge with highs only getting into the low 50°s, although at least it will be a mostly-sunny day.  (As an FYI, afternoon highs won’t be much warmer in New Orleans either.)

Monday stays dry with temps climbing back into the 60°s for the afternoon, but our long-range look at Mardi Gras Day is not especially promising right now.  A cold front is expected to be pushing through the state during the day and the current guidance says that this boundary -- unlike the two that preceded it -- will be a rain-maker.  We’re posting scattered showers and t-storms during the day.