Rain Threat Lessens Across Acadiana for the Coming Week

It was a waterlogged week in South Louisiana. In fact, I do believe the National Weather Service Reporting Station at the Lafayette Regional Airport has recorded measurable precipitation for each day in the month of June. This as the region is coming off one of the wettest months of May in recent memory. So it's no wonder your grass has grown too high and your shoes squeak when you walk into work from outside.

The past few days Louisiana has been under an atmospheric river of moisture being swept up from the Gulf of Mexico. That instability has been exacerbated by upper-level disturbances moving across the area kicking off frequent periods of heavy rain and thunderstorms.

There does appear to be a break in that weather pattern for this week but it won't be the kind of break most of us are looking for. While a lot of us are hoping for some nice sunny days what we'll likely see is more typical weather for early June.

That means partly cloudy skies in the morning with a threat of an air mass or pop-up thunderstorm in the afternoon. So there will be a threat of rain remaining in the forecast but it shouldn't be the large areas of rain and the heavy deluges that the previous week has brought.

The downside to a lower rain threat is a lot "more red" in your thermometer. That's right when the rain chances go down, the temperatures come up. We should start the week with afternoon forecast high temperatures in the middle 80s. The heat index will make that feel more like the lower to middle 90s.

Meteorologist Rob Perillo is thinking that by Tuesday Lafayette will have its first high temperature of the summer season reaching 90 degrees or higher. This is kind of remarkable because we normally hit 90 degrees or better long before June.

So, expect a little less rain and a little more heat, and then get ready to start watching the tropics. Some of the long-range forecast models are indicating a disturbance in the Caribbean Sea by next weekend. Of course, that's a model and not a forecast, so we will watch it for you.

In the meantime, since the weather is going to feel more like it, are you ready to get your "beach" on?