Weekend begins with heat & ends with strong storms

Scattered storms returned to the ArkLaTex Friday.  Once this rain ends, drier weather settles in Saturday with hot temperatures.  A front will bring some more widespread rain Sunday, Sunday night, and Monday.  The rest of next week still looks dry.

Front to bring the potential for heavy rain:  Parts of the ArkLaTex have received some decent rain Friday, but areas of heavy rain have been very scattered.  The heavier rain will likely become more widespread late this weekend.  Futurecast shows what’s left of today’s rain ending Friday evening.  We will see a partly to mostly cloudy sky Friday night with mainly dry conditions.  The weekend begins with a mix of sunshine and clouds on Saturday. Some rain can not be totally ruled out but the chance is looking very low at this point.  The much-anticipated front will ease closer to the ArkLaTex Saturday night.  Scattered showers and thunderstorms could move into the northern edge of the area late Saturday night.  This rain will gradually spread south Sunday, Sunday night, and Monday.  A few of the storms Sunday and Sunday night could be rather strong. 

The Storm Prediction Center indicates that we will have a marginal to slight severe weather risk.  That means that any severe weather should be rather isolated to scattered in nature. Damaging wind and potentially some hail will likely be our biggest concerns.

A hot start to the weekend:   The weekend will get off to a rather hot start for most of the area.  With little rain and plenty of sunshine mixing in with the clouds, afternoon temperatures Saturday will likely soar into the middle 90s with a few upper 90s possible over the southern half of the area.  Lows Saturday morning will likely be in the 60s and lower 70s.  Temperatures Sunday will remain above normal over much of the area with highs in the 80s and lower 90s. Slightly cooler air will move into the area behind the front next week.

Above-normal rain still looks promising:  The blend of models still shows that pretty much all of the ArkLatex will get some decent rain.  The heaviest rain will likely be over the NW part of the area where 2-3” will be possible.  Rain potential will likely be lower as you go southeast with totals over the southeast edge of the area in the range of 1 to 1.5”.  Once the rain ends on Monday, it could be a while before it returns.  Models show dry weather settling in through the rest of next week and next weekend.

Only a small cool down:  Temperatures next week will only be slightly cooler and actually pretty close to normal.  Highs will mainly be in the upper 80s and low 90s once the sunshine returns Tuesday. Overnight lows will ease into the low to middle 60s.  Shreveport has yet to see a low in the 50s.  We have passed the average date of experiencing that threshold and it looks like it could be at least a couple of weeks before it could happen.  Patience!