After a brutal summer, we're finally seeing some changes in the forecast that may last a while. Thursday's front was the first of two fronts that will slide through the area. We were fortunate with Thursday's rainfall with many areas picking up a half to three quarters of an inch of rain. Lafayette Regional Airport's gauge soaked in an inch and a half. We're very fortunate, since the models were predicting significantly less. It's a dent in the drought, but not a drought buster yet.
Lots of clouds are expected for the early part of the day Friday, even some fog possible along the coast. Later in the afternoon, winds will pick up and clouds will break a little. Temperatures will warm into the mid 80s which is normal for this time of year. Winds will gust up to 20mph this afternoon.
Overnight, skies will remain mostly cloudy as the next front pushes in. Winds will pick up to the 20-25mph range. Temperatures will drop into the lower 60s, which is some of the coolest air we've seen since early May. Saturday a little more sunshine is expected, but temperatures will run in the mid 70s. Even with the recent rainfall, fire danger will be extremely high on Saturday as winds will stay over 20mph and humidity levels drop into the 30% range. A red flag warning will be in effect through Sunday.
Overnight Saturday into Sunday morning it will actually be chilly. Lows are expected to drop to near 50 in Lafayette, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a few 40s over the northern sections. Winds will still be brisk, if they were to go calm, we'd see even lower temperatures, but that doesn't seem to be the case this time. Sunday looks fantastic, with mostly sunny skies and afternoon highs in the mid 70s, winds will be northerly at 10-15mph. Fire danger will remain high.
Next week, we'll see a bit of a warm up, and humidity levels will increase by the mid week. Some showers are planned for late next week with another trough moving in. Right now, things look to clear out and cool off for the weekend. That's great news as several festivals will be happening across Acadiana.
