Frosty next Monday - Wednesday

Upper 70s warmth and humidity will continue through Friday before a significant upper air pattern shift brings a cold front through Saturday morning. 70s will be a distant memory beginning on Sunday; we won’t touch 70 for several weeks with several frost or light to moderate freeze events. Time to find those jackets and bring out the gumbo or soup recipes.

This NWS forecast map shows the cold front just west of us at 6 AM Saturday. Note the second cold front near Iowa which will swing through on Sunday. This means that Saturday and Sunday morning’s cold will just drop us down to normal, but the real cold arrives Sunday night and Monday morning.

One thing the map doesn’t show is rainfall (My college roommate snoozed through a class on meteorology of the planets. No rain = boring). Showers and thunderstorms will break out in several batches ahead of the cold front anytime from late Friday afternoon until Sunday morning. The second front will come through dry.

The Foreca graphic looks reasonable, but I’ll lower the temperatures in spots. Here’s a few things to note:

First, the graphic shows fog on Thursday morning, but I think it’s also possible tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. There’s a chance of a few sprinkles as the fog lifts in the mid-morning hours.

Second, say “Bye” to the sun for a while. Clouds move in tomorrow and will be with us off and on until through most of Sunday.

Third, we could see a half inch to an inch from these showers.

Fourth, temperatures shown are for Slidell airport. So, low temperatures could vary by plus or minus 3 degrees on the Northshore, especially on Tuesday morning where winds will be calm. Southshore lows should stay in the upper 30s or above.

The promised second wammy of cold air looks to arrive Monday Jan. 19 and be with us for Tuesday Jan. 20. That’s almost exactly the same date as last year’s epic snowstorm. A freeze seems likely, but it’s too early to say much else.

Until then,

Thurs. Jan 15 Sunny. Low 37 High 57

Friday Jan 16 Partly Cloudy Low 41 High 65

Saturday Jan 17 Showers Low 55 High 65

Sunday Jan 18 Showers Low 42 High 56