Acadiana is still on track for the the coldest weather since early February 1996 with relatively mild temperatures and some patchy rain early Thursday yielding to drier air and plummeting readings tomorrow evening. There should be no local travel problems Thursday as any residual moisture from the early rains will dry up and evaporate well before the colder temperatures arrive. This arctic outbreak will likely keep our temperatures near or below freezing for most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday with just a few hours each day with temperatures above the freezing zone. Highs Friday will be confined to the mid-upper 30s with limited sun by high clouds. Saturday we’ll be no warmer than the mid-30s under full sun while sunshine continues for Sunday with only a modest warm-up into the low-mid 40s. Overnight lows will be in the bitter upper teens to lower 20s Friday night and Saturday night with some nasty wind chills mixed in Thuursday and Friday nights. Wind chills Friday morning will be in the upper teens while Saturday morning chills could be as low as the lower teens or even single digits. There are no indications that there will be any travel problems associated with any precipitation with this arctic outbreak as any moisture on the ground will be evaporating with the wind and very dry air. With that being said, roadways over water Saturday night into Sunday morning could accrete some ice if some “arctic sea smoke” develops…especially over the Atchafalaya Basin. Arctic Sea Smoke is a condensation fog that develops over relatively warmer water when the air is very cold and still. This is famous weather triple misnomer as in our case develops in Louisiana (not in the arctic), it’s not on the sea (in the swamp) and it’s not smoke-it’s a condensation cloud/fog. It will likely make for some very interesting images come Sunday morning with light winds and daybreak temperatures in the teens…photo buffs this is your calling! But dress warmly and be careful.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.