Nice Weather for the Parades!

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

WAFB First Alert Quickcast:

- another cold start for Saturday’s sunrise
- nice warm-up through the weekend
- mainly-dry through next weekend

Some WAFB neighborhoods slipped down into the upper 20°s this morning -- a reminder that it’s still winter -- but a quick morning warm-up under the sunshine had just about everyone in the 50°s by lunchtime. Today’s blue skies were most welcomed even if our afternoon highs were a bit below the early February norm.

We’ve got one more cold start to deal with: look for lows in the mid 30°s for the Capital City on Saturday morning with some communities north and east of the metro area flirting with another brief sun-up freeze. But once the sun rises tomorrow morning, we’ll warm-up even faster than earlier this morning and most of us will be in the 60°s by lunchtime. It will be a real beauty of a Saturday afternoon, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the upper 60°s.

Saturday Mardi Gras Parades include Clinton, downtown BR’s Mystique, Denham Springs, Walker, boats along the Diversion Canal, and closing it all out back downtown with the Men of Orion on Saturday evening.

Sunday gets even warmer under partly cloudy skies, with a morning low in the upper 40°s to near 50° for the Capital City and an afternoon high in the 70°s. We will whisper a very slight chance of a sprinkle here or there for Sunday -- setting rain chances at 10% -- but that’s just not enough to worry about. Meanwhile on Sunday, North Boulevard goes to the dogs with the Mystic Krewe of Mutts while across the river the fire trucks will roll through Addis.

A weak, mainly-dry front will slide through the area on Monday -- once again we’re calling for spotty showers at best. But you will notice temperatures dropping a bit for Tuesday and Wednesday. Then another mainly-dry front pushes through the region early Thursday, delivering an even cooler air mass and bigger dip on the thermometer. In fact, by Friday, we could be flirting with another morning freeze. 

But the good news here is that the weather should remain mainly-dry through this weekend and the upcoming work week with a chance for another dry weekend down the road as we get into the heart of Carnival time.

Whatever you do this weekend, try to get outside and enjoy the fine weather!