NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A hot and mainly dry weather pattern is settling across southeast Louisiana and coastal Mississippi, with temperatures climbing into the mid to upper 90s through the weekend. A few inland locations could approach 100 degrees, and when combined with Gulf humidity, heat index values will commonly reach 105 to 110 degrees. Some spots could briefly exceed 110 degrees early next week, making heat advisories increasingly likely. Warm overnight lows in the upper 70s to around 80 degrees will offer little relief.
Rain will be hard to come by for most of the area through the weekend as strong high pressure aloft suppresses widespread thunderstorm development. The best chance for an isolated afternoon shower or thunderstorm will be east of Interstate 55, including parts of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the eastern New Orleans metro, where rain chances remain only around 20 to 30 percent. Areas farther west should stay mostly dry.
Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring a broad area of showers and thunderstorms over the eastern Gulf of America associated with an upper-level low and a surface trough. At the moment there are a lot of questions as to the future of this system. We will need to watch it very closely. Expect rain and storms over Florida through the weekend. Beyond that there is the potential of a low pressure system moving west through the Gulf. If that happens then more significant development is possible…