Another heat advisory today as rain chances diminish

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A Heat Advisory is once again in effect for much of our area, including metro Baton Rouge, from 9 a.m. through 7 p.m. this evening.

The combination of heat and humidity could lead to heat index values topping 105° in some areas, although again today I think that is more likely to occur for areas south of I-10.

Outside of the heat, the big story will be a quick transition to drier weather today into the weekend as high pressure builds in from the east. Rain chances will run 20% or less for the next few days as highs climb into the low to mid 90s.

Be careful if you plan to be outdoors for any length of time and use common sense when it comes to dealing with the heat.

Additional heat advisories appear likely into the weekend and the National Weather Service has even gone as far as to issue an Excessive Heat Watch on Saturday and Sunday for the parishes surrounding Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas. An Excessive Heat Watch is issued when the potential exists for heat index values to climb above 112°.

High pressure should gradually weaken during the first half of next week, allowing for the return of our typical scattered afternoon t-storms. We may still flirt with highs in the mid 90s during the early part of the week, but low 90s should be the rule during the second half of the week. It also looks as though rain chances will trend a bit higher from Wednesday through the end of the week.

In the tropics, we continue to track Grace and Henri this morning.

Grace has emerged over the Bay of Campeche and has maximum winds of 70 mph as of the 4 a.m. Friday advisory. Grace could become a hurricane once again today or tonight before making a second landfall in Mexico by early Saturday.

Henri will begin moving in a more northerly direction today over the western Atlantic. Maximum winds are 65 mph as of the 4 a.m. advisory. Henri is expected to become a hurricane in the next day or so and still looks as though it could threaten coastal New England by late in the weekend.

Finally, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring a tropical wave in the far eastern Atlantic. That disturbance is given a 20% chance of development over the next 5 days as it moves to the northwest over the open Atlantic.

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