Much Nicer Days Ahead!

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

April 28th WAFB First Alert Quickcast:

- dry-out begins tonight and extends through the weekend
- cool mornings, mild afternoons this week

We’ve been tracking spotty showers this afternoon as cooler-and-drier air settles over the region. What light showers and sprinkles that try to persist into the late afternoon and early evening should dissipate quickly.

In the meantime, the National Weather Service has several storm-survey crews out examining some of the damage from yesterday. Thus far, there is a confirmed tornado in the Kenner area and earlier this afternoon one of the NWS survey teams delivered confirmation of a touchdown near Pierre Part and a secondary brief touchdown near Napoleonville. It is likely that these two touchdowns are from the same tornadic storm, although not necessarily from the same funnel/twister. The survey will continue towards Thibodaux -- where law enforcement reported a touchdown -- and then farther east to near Des Allemands. All of this survey is linked to the same system that prompted a Tornado Warning across those parishes on Monday morning.

Another crew has been looking through portions of EBR Parish along the path of a Warned area that extended through metro Baton Rouge: preliminary conclusions from that survey indicates straight-line winds as the culprit.

For the rest of us, the clean-up -- and in some cases, power restoration -- continues. Clouds will linger with us through the night and into Wednesday as we wait for the large upper-level low currently over the Red River Valley (TX/OK line) to make its exit to the east. As long as that upper low remains to our northwest and north, we can expect clouds to persist. That is why we’re anticipating a mix of sun and clouds through much of Wednesday with clearing into Wednesday evening and overnight.

We’ve got lows dropping into the low to mid 50°s for Wednesday’s sunrise; the sun/cloud mix and dry, continental air mass from the northwest will hold afternoon highs down in the low to mid 70°s for the Capital City. But into the night into early Thursday, the last of the clouds should move out of the area. 

Thursday morning will start a nice run of fine spring days with plenty of sunshine. The cooler air mass and clear skies will mean morning lows n the low 50°s for metro BR, with some of WAFB’s northern communities to dipping into the upper 40°s for Thursday’s start!

Mainly-clear skies will persist into the weekend, with BR metro area lows in the 50°s and afternoon highs in the upper 70°s and low 80°s right through Sunday.

So put the umbrella away: our extended outlook keeps us dry at least into the early part of next week.