By Sherry Koonce
The News staff writer
Sunny skies and cooler temperatures are on the way, at least partially, as rainy conditions clear out of the area by Friday.
“The clouds will stick around longer than the rain will, but the weekend looks pretty good,” Stephen Carboni, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Lake Charles office, said.
Weather service forecasts indicate rain, which started Wednesday evening, will move out of the Golden Triangle by Friday. Clouds will continue most of the day Friday, but by Saturday partly sunny skies are expected.
Temperatures over the weekend will be in the low- to mid-40s with highs in the mid-50s.
Carboni said there is little to no chance of rain all weekend, but as the week progresses another system is expected to form and bring more precipitation to Southeast Texas.
“We are going to continue the active pattern we are in with another disturbance coming out of the Pacific,” he said.
The system is expected to bring heavier rainfall to the north of the Golden Triangle, but not miss it entirely. Monday forecasts call for 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms.
Because of the El Nino pattern, above normal rain patterns are expected to last through the winter, Carboni said.
El Nino typically results in a more active jet stream in the area which produces above normal rainfall.
Since Thursday when the latest system started producing heavy rainfall, about 2 inches of precipitation were recorded at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport.
By week’s end, and just in time for local Mardi Gras celebrations, rain is back in the extended forecast, Carboni said.
skoonce@panews.com
