FIRST ALERT FORECAST: Showers, possible thunderstorms move through overnight into Wednesday morning

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Isolated light showers Tuesday evening will serve as the warm-up for a much more active period of rain during the overnight and early morning hours.

Expect scattered showers with a few thunderstorms possible by midnight, with showers and isolated t-storms across the WAFB region before sunrise Wednesday. The rains will be linked to a frontal system tracking across the state. Fortunately, the Storm Team does not anticipate a severe weather outbreak with Wednesday morning’s cold front and it looks like a majority of WAFB neighborhoods will receive less than 0.5” of rain.

While the morning commute will be wet, with a little luck we should see the heaviest rains moving out of the Baton Rouge metro area by or before 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Rains will slowly subside through the morning into noon. We can’t rule out a spotty sprinkle or two Wednesday afternoon, but the main core of rains will be long gone. Even with the system steadily moving east, clouds will linger through the rest of the day. Add in northerly winds, occasionally climbing into the double digits (10 to 15 mph), and it will still feel rather cool even though high temperatures will reach the low 60s.

The area could see a brief break in the clouds Thursday morning, but clouds will be returning by the afternoon. We stay dry for most of Thursday, with isolated showers possible by late Thursday evening ahead of the next rainmaker.

Scattered rains return Friday as an area of low pressure skirts the southeastern Louisiana coast. As with Wednesday, most of Friday’s rains will fall during the morning, and there is little or no serious concern for severe weather. Rain totals will come in under 0.5” for most of the WAFB region. And like Wednesday, clouds will linger long after the rains have moved to the east, with afternoon temperatures struggling to reach 60°.

The payoff for the rainy work week comes over the weekend. Clouds will be thinning through Saturday morning with fair skies for the afternoon as highs return to the low 60s. Plan for abundant sunshine Sunday and a milder day too, with highs in the upper 60s.

The extended outlook for the following workweek calls for rains to return with an unsettled pattern persisting from Monday, Feb. 3 through Thursday, Feb. 6.

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