Warm, Mainly Dry Weather Continues

By Jay Grymes & Steve Caparotta

June 4th WAFB First Alert Quickcast:

- staying very warm and mainly-dry through the weekend

WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get weatherwise over the next few days as our local weather will remain almost unchanged through the weekend. 

Note: almost.

What will change is that the humidity will continue to increase each day, albeit slowly. By the weekend, dew points are likely to be hovering near or at 70° for much of the day.  Now a dew point around 70° is not high for June -- in fact, it is just about what we expect for this time of year.  But compared to the past few days, you’ll almost certainly feel the added humidity if you spend any time outdoors. 

With the added humidity (the amount of water vapor in the air) we also have more moisture for potential cloud development and afternoon showers. However, the upper-level ridge that we’ve been noting over the past several days is expected to remain in place and stay fairly strong through the weekend.  That ridge works against the onset of showers, inhibiting the vertical development for clouds: no clouds, no rain.

Our local forecast calls for one more morning for the Red Stick with a low in the 60°s, then get ready for morning minimums around 70° or more for metro Baton Rouge through the weekend and into next week.  With the ridging still in place, we expect very warm and mainly dry afternoons for Friday and Saturday, with isolated showers, at best, for Sunday.  Highs for all three days will be around 90° to the low 90°s for the Capital City.

And in case you are wondering, a temperature of 90° with a dew point of 70° means a Heat Index value (‘feels like’ temperature) of 95°.  And by the way, that combination (90° / 70°) yields a relative humidity of only 51%.  Only 51% and yet it feels so hot?  That is why we prefer talking about the dew point temperature rather than the relative humidity.

So it’s a “sunscreen weekend” … and the weather is looking cooperative for the LSU/ULL Baseball Battles at The Box on Saturday and Sunday!

We’ll stay with isolated afternoon showers in the forecast for Monday and probably for Tuesday.  After that, the ridge will have weakened, allowing something a bit more traditional for the summer at mid-week: scattered afternoon thundershowers for Wednesday and Thursday.