Another Wet Weekend in Store for Acadiana

Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center are keeping a watchful eye on an area of low pressure centered over extreme southern Texas this morning. While the center of circulation around that broad area of low pressure does remain onshore it's close enough to the Gulf of Mexico that any variation in the forecast track could put the system over the very warm waters of the southwestern Gulf.

Just for clarity's sake, forecasters don't think the system will move out over the water but they do think it will be the catalyst for a lot of the rainfall we will experience again today. But there is a bit of a dry light at the end of the tunnel. However, that won't erase the chances of rain and thunderstorms from the forecast entirely.

Today, Friday, we will see another round of tropical downpours interspersed with widely scattered showers. Some of those cloudbursts could drop a lot of rain over a very short time and that could lead to some very localized flash flooding of low-lying areas.

Most of the forecast models suggest that our better chances of rain will come during the day to day and during the day on Saturday. We do anticipate fewer showers firing up for Sunday afternoon but there is still enough of a rain chance in the forecast you'll want to check the weather radar before you leave the house.

I wish we had better news to share with you regarding rain chances across South Louisiana for next week but it does look as if we will find ourselves intertwined in yet another wet pattern. Forecasters believe a frontal system will push close to the area to start with work week but it should fizzle out. Unfortunately, it won't fizzle until we've got a few more inches of rain or at least the possibility of a few more inches of rain.

And as far as the tropics go, Tropical Storm Elsa, yes it is still a thing, is sliding up the east coast this morning. It will bring heavy downpours to the big cities of the northeast during the day today and tomorrow.

But there is good news out of the tropics, a layer of Saharan dust has made its way across the Atlantic and into the Gulf of Mexico. The dust, while it usually gives us some spectacular sunsets will also help quell any tropical development in the near term as well.