The Farmer's Forecast: Done With Freezes?
By Nick Mikulas
Howdy folks. Meteorologist Nick Mikulas here to discuss some Louisiana weather. We had our first Red Flag Warning of the year for the southern half of the state on Thursday, and I don’t like seeing things like that so early in the season. It looks like we have some rain that will help that situation from late Sunday into early Monday. Unfortunately, with that, comes a chance for severe weather.
As you’re reading this on Friday morning, it’s probably pretty darn chilly. Some may even have a little frost out there! I’m getting more and more optimistic that after any sort of frost this morning, we are done with frosts and freezes until the next cold season. The record for the latest frost in Alexandria, and Lafayette is April 13th, and oddly enough, it’s 2 days earlier in Shreveport where they have a record latest freeze on April 11th. All indications are that we won’t see a strong push of cold air in the next couple weeks. That gets us into the early part of April, so unless we see a record tying, or breaking event in the second week of April, we should be done with freezes.
Regarding the Sunday afternoon into early Monday severe threat, I think we will see a few severe storms, but not a huge outbreak like we had to our north and east last week. The parameters aren’t in place for widespread severe weather, but a few rowdy storms are likely. I also think most of us will see 1/2 to 2 inches of rain from that system.
Beyond Sunday, we have a few quiet days, but should see more rain by late next week. We can deal with that as we get closer since details are hard to come by that far out. I’ll be watching it all!