Cloudy Christmas then steady rains to end out the week

Hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas Eve and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Clouds will be moving in tonight as winds start to rotate out of the South pushing warm and moist air over the region.

Thanks to the clouds and southerly flow lows tonight will be about 10° warmer as we will bottom out in the lower 50s.

Here is a look at the latest hour by hour temperatures.

Also as low level moisture returns there will be the possibility for some patchy to dense fog developing late but Santa should have no issues fly through it as he delivers presents.

Clouds will continue to thicken on Christmas along with maybe a few sprinkles/drizzle but it will be warm with highs near 70.

For those doing some traveling after Christmas that is when things get interesting.

An upper level system will be tracking across the southwest on Christmas and by Wednesday will begin to head for the panhandle of Texas.

As the system moves up into the Great Plains it will help to pull a warm front out of the Gulf and over Louisiana Wednesday afternoon/evening producing scattered showers and maybe a few rumbles of thunder.

The good news is the models are now backing the timing for the rain in Acadiana until about dinnertime Wednesday so if you are traveling during the day on Wednesday you should not have too many issues.

However, once the rains start we will have steady on and off showers for about 50 straight hours.

Thursday rains look to pick up in intense as we could have rounds of moderate to heavy showers, especially during the morning, along with a couple strong to severe storms as the main cold front works through Acadiana.

Right now the Storm Prediction Center has portions of south Texas under a slight risk for severe weather Wednesday evening while the western portions of Acadiana are hatched in a marginal risk(5%) for one or two storms to producing gusty winds up to 60 mph and maybe a brief spin-up tornado.

This marginal risk will more than likely get extended across all of Acadiana for Thursday.

As for rainfall amounts most areas will see about 1-3 inches of rain from Wednesday night and Thursday, so flooding should not be an issue but ponding on roadways and in the typical spots is likely.

Now as the main area of low pressure for the system lifts up into the Great Lakes the cold front associated with it over our region is going to lose it steering, thus will only move off to the east at a snail’s pace meaning light showers will lingering late Thursday into much of the day on Friday.

Now Friday as the front tries to work off to the east we could see some breaks in the rain but it will still be cloudy with that misty, light rain still possible most of the day.

Then for the weekend the cold front will stall and become a stationary front along the Gulf Coast creating the forcing for more scattered showers Saturday and Sunday.

Again this will be just light showers but rain amounts could begin to add up to an additional 1-3 inches.

So in total from the time the rain starts Wednesday evening until New Years Eve Monday most communities in Acadiana will receive about 3-5 inches of rain.

And looking ahead to the New Year’s forecast the models keep us on the wet and gloomy side with the chance for light scattered showers Monday through Wednesday.