More heat, little precipitation until Saturday

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Today’s forecast: Today will be hot and mostly dry as a high pressure system slowly builds from the west. Highs will rise above 95 degrees for many, with the only hope being that humidity won’t be too high. If there are scattered showers, they will most likely occur south of I-10.

Even hotter for Friday and Saturday

Friday and Saturday will continue to get hotter as the center of a high pressure dome briefly passes over us. Highs are expected to reach the upper 90s on both days, with heat index values ​​in the 100° to 105° range, although they could be a bit higher at times. Isolated showers cannot be ruled out, but both days should remain mostly dry.

Better chances of rain = relief from the heat

As the high pressure dome shifts eastward, increasing amounts of moisture from the Gulf will be brought into the area beginning Sunday. Scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms are expected from Sunday through at least the middle of next week, which should help keep highs a little closer to normal.

The orientation seems to be increasingly moving towards the deepest tropical humidity in the south of our region, where the possibility of heavy rainfall would tend to be lower.

Tropical Update

Part of our rain potential is determined by possible tropical development in the southern Gulf this weekend or early next week. There is a good chance a system will develop, but it also appears that it will most likely move toward Mexico. With that in mind, not only would we not have to worry about direct tropical impacts, but the heaviest rainfall would remain to the south. Currently, the chances of development over the next 7 days are at 40%, but these are expected to continue to increase in the forecasts below.

The National Hurricane Center also continues to monitor a low-pressure system moving into the western Atlantic from Florida, with only a 20% chance of this system developing in the next few days.

Rainfall

The latest forecasts from the Weather Prediction Center agree that the heaviest rains are expected near or offshore. Total rainfall is expected to be between 1 and 3 inches for most of us through next Thursday morning, but closer to the coast it could reach 3 to 5 inches if some of the tropical moisture can penetrate far enough north.

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