LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) – The warm, dry weather is going nowhere through the weekend. This is good news for any outdoor plans, but bad news for the drought situation in SWLA.
With our pattern basically repeating over the next couple days, more warm afternoons are expected. This includes Friday with highs expected in the upper 80’s. Humidity still should stay under control which bodes well for any outdoor plans, including high school football games or anything else.
High pressure will move east of our area by this weekend and that means we will see a slight warming trend. It will still be nice for anything outdoors with lows in the 60s. High temps may go up a little with those numbers expected near 90 degrees by Sunday and Monday. After that is when we track the next cold front.
Another cold front will move through here on Monday and this will bring back cooler temperatures for much of next week as we shift further into Fall. This will bring another round of cooler nighttime lows, with low-to-mid 50’s likely. Some models even suggest 40’s may be possible for many! We won’t go that cool on the forecast quite yet, but it is something we’ll watch over the weekend. Even highs should reduce and could possibly fail to reach the 80 degree mark on Wednesday.
The drawback to this pattern continues to be the lack of rain. We have not received any measurable rain since late September at the Lake Charles Regional Airport, and it has been since early September for the last time of appreciable rain. Accordingly, much of SWLA has been placed under the level 2/5 (moderate) drought in the US Drought Monitor. Virtually all of SWLA is under the level 1. Rain continues to be absent from the 10-day forecast, so expansion or worsening of these areas is certainly possible over the next week. This also means more burn bans may pop-up, so do be careful with any outdoor plans you have.
In the tropics, the remnants of Milton are now in the Atlantic where they will stay. Leslie is weakening and will stay at sea. A wave off the African coast has a low chance of developing over the next seven days. Even that though should stay away, so things for our interests will remain quiet at least for the next week…