After a nice fall day across Acadiana on Saturday clouds will be sliding over the region tonight helping to prevent temperatures from cooling too much as lows will bottom out in the mid 40s Sunday morning.
Overcast skies will linger throughout throughout the day on Sunday along with a few isolated light showers but the heaviest rains will hold off til Sunday night into Monday morning.
These showers will be the result of a warm front and associated low pressure system lifting off the Gulf and over Acadiana through the first half of Monday.
This system could produce a few strong to possibility severe storms as the Storm Prediction Center has the southern portion of Acadiana under a marginal risk(5%) for damaging wind gusts and some small hail as the main threats.
Then Monday afternoon a strong cold front will swinging through the region producing another round of widespread showers.
Between these 2 systems we will receive another good soaking as most areas will pick up 1-3 inches of rain.
There is also a marginal risk for coastal parishes to possibility experience some flash flooding from this system if showers train over the same spots and dump 3-5 inches of rain.
The good news is the windy and cool conditions the past couple days have allowed most areas to dry out so the ground should be able to soak up the rains if they stay light to moderate.
The bad news is rivers and bayous are running on the high side from the rains last week so if we do get heavy rains Monday those will need to be monitored.
Once the cold front clears the area late Monday night into early Tuesday morning the rains should come to an end for the next 6-7 days.
However, behind this front Acadiana will get a shot of very cold air as highs on Tuesday will only top out in the mid to upper 40s and with very breezy conditions out of the north causing wind chills most of the day to feel like the upper 30s. Brrr!
Then Wednesday morning Acadiana will most likely see its first frost/freeze of the season as lows will bottom out in the low 30s.
Wednesday sunshine will return and winds will die down making it feel warmer even though highs will only top out in the upper 40s to lower 50s.
Thursday morning lows will get down close to the freezing mark, with areas north of the interstate likely to drop into the upper 20s.
Thus, sensitive vegetation will need to be protected Wednesday and Thursday morning but this will not be a pipe bursting cold.
Thursday afternoon temperatures will slowly warm up with highs getting into the upper 50s and then we will see more seasonable temperatures Friday afternoon into next weekend as highs will get back into the low to mid 60s.
