Dreary, cooler and occasionally wet conditions are expected for Acadiana as we finish out the week and start the weekend.
Overcast skies are expected to remain dominant for Acadiana Friday behind a cold front that will traverse the area Thursday night.
In addition to scattered showers accompanying and following the front Thursday night, more shower activity is expected into Friday afternoon as weak disturbances aloft interact with moisture overrunning the cooler air at the surface.
Another disturbance aloft will swing through the area into Saturday keeping clouds and rain chances with us...at least for the first half of the day as the feature will be weakening as it reaches Louisiana.
We might see a brief glimpse of the sun Saturday afternoon, but mostly cloudy and cool weather should persist into Sunday morning.
By Sunday afternoon it appears the skies should brighten and we may get to see at least a small period of sunshine during the afternoon.
Highs this weekend will be confined to the mid-upper 50s while night-time/morning lows reside in the low-mid 40s.
The weather pattern will get much more changeable and perhaps a lot more "interesting" later next week.
It should get milder again under partly to at times mostly cloudy skies Monday into Tuesday, but a series of surges of much colder air is expected to arrive by Thursday into the weekend.
In fact, at this point, both the longer range GFS and Euro Models agree that potentially the coldest air of the winter season may make a run for Acadiana, but the big question is whether there will be any precipitation involved.
At this point expect daytime highs to drop from the lower 70s Tuesday, into the lower 60s or upper 50s Wednesday, then primarily holding in the 30s Friday and Saturday.
As for precipitation, it appears that cold wet rains will be likely by Thursday, with the latest GFS model wringing most of the moisture out before the atmosphere would be supportive of any kind of a a significant wintry mix.
Meanwhile, the Euro Model is more bullish today on rain changing to sleet, and then for a brief period to snow late Friday...the GFS is showing slight support for rain ending with some sleet pellets.
The bottom line, a lot can and will change in this part of the forecast given its beyond the 6-7 day window we're more comfortable/confident with forecasting this time of year.
However, the risk of a couple of hard freezes with temperatures in the 20s, wind chills dropping into the teens or single digits perhaps for one or two nights are potentially in the cards.
Mind you, Lafayette has experienced only 3 light freezes all winter long with the coldest reading of 30° on January 12th.
See the KATC 10 Day Forecast for the latest and stay with us for future updates.
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