Wet Sat. eve & Sun. morn, then cooler

Many of us in Eastern St Tammany haven’t seen any rain when forecasts have been calling for it, but a slow moving cold front will provide some organized showers and storms for just the time you’d rather not see it - Easter morning.

Today, all the showers and storms were concentrated in a line from the River Parishes up through the Hammond area with nary a drop in St. Tammany, New Orleans, or any of the Mississippi coastal counties. Expect those showers to be in the Baton Rouge area tomorrow and for the rest of us to pretty much stay dry. Winds will be lower than today.

Saturday will be a different story. Moisture will increase and upper air conditions will be slightly more favorable for showers and storms which could form anytime from late morning through sunset. These will be hit or miss.

The main action arrives in the wee hours of Sunday morning. A cold front arrives about sunrise on Easter morning. Showers and storms could break out anytime from 1 through 7 AM. But notice the ECMWF forecast for rainfall from 7-10 AM Sunday. Though the front is forecast to be at the leading edge of the rain from Ft. Walton Beach to near the mouth of the MS. river, showers linger back well behind the front. My take is that we could get a 2-4 hour break in the showers, before another batch arrives later in the morning. Either way, the Easter Bunny and all those phony eggs will get wet. Weekend totals of a half inch to a little over an inch seem possible. Clouds will linger through the rest of Sunday and Monday.

The Foreca graphic overdoes the rainfall. I think showers are unlikely tonight, but I agree with it’s weekend depiction. Note that the 7 PM Sunday rainfall is a 6-hour total and probably will happen early in the afternoon, if at all. Further north and west - say from Tangipahoa to Washington Parish and northern Pearl River County, expect the showers to end earlier - maybe mid-morning. So, Sundays showers won’t be an all day affair. However, expect cloudy conditions from Saturday afternoon through Monday. With highs only near 70 on Sunday and a 13 mph north wind, it will feel more like Easter up north.

The good news is that humidity will drop Sunday afternoon and it will stay low through Wednesday. Morning lows will get well down into the 50s. We won’t have many more of these - so enjoy.

Return flow slowly sets in on Thursday, so expect a gradual increase in humidity with an outside chance of a shower late Thursday or early Friday.

Any showers late in the week will vanish by net weekend as an upper air ridge builds in. The next chance of rain could be tax day, Wednesday April 15, as a weak cold front approaches. Here’s the ECMWF forecast highs and lows for Slidell Airport for the 6-day period beginning Sat. April 11. 80’s return, but it’s hardly summer yet.

Let me know when you want me to begin this feature again. I’m crazy busy for the next three weeks, so I’d like to put this off until late April or May.