The Farmer's Forecast: Not All Bad News

By Nick Mikulas

Louisiana Farm Bureau News/Cenla Weather

I'm quite pleased to bring a Farmer's Forecast that isn't all bad news! We are getting into the dog days of summer, even though we are still about a month away from the beginning of summer. That's how Louisiana does summer, as you all know quite well. Fortunately for soybean and cotton farmers, it looks like heavy rain will avoid the state for the next week. Of course, we don't want too much, or too little of a good thing, but a nice balance is always welcome. As it stands now, I expect most of the state to see a hot, and mainly dry Memorial Day weekend, with most areas seeing less than an inch of rain in the next week. I've added the WPC rainfall outlook to highlight who is most likely to see a little more rain. 

Most of the rain in our forecast will fall next week, with late Monday into Tuesday bringing our best chance. I actually think the WPC map is a bit high on precipitation amounts in the central part of the state, but a general 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch is likely. With the low rain amounts, the risk for severe weather will also remain low. It even looks like an early June "cold" front will come through and bring highs back into the 80s, with overnight lows in the 60s north of I-10 for the second half of next week. Enjoy it, because cold fronts will become quite scarce in the coming weeks and months!