Baton Rouge will finish out January with another severe cold front starting Friday evening and continuing until Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
The arctic cold front will start with a 20% chance of rain Friday morning and a high temperature of 50. Once Friday evening rolls around, the temperature will dramatically drop, with overnight lows in the upper teens and low 20s, NWS forecaster Phil Grigsby said.
Heavy winds are expected Friday night into Saturday morning, creating a wind chill in the single digits.
Saturday will bring a sunny day with highs in the mid- to upper 30s. The wind chill will make it feel like the lower 20s.
โWeโll only be above freezing for maybe three or four hours in the afternoon, otherwise weโll be below freezing for the rest of the time,โ Grigsby said.
The overnight temperature from Saturday into Sunday morning will drop again to the mid-teens with less wind. Sunday highs are expected to be much warmer in the low to mid-40s.
Monday will be similar, but by Tuesday, the temperatures will warm back to the mid-60s.
The persistent arctic weather is coming from a low-pressure system hovering over the Great Lakes. The system hasnโt moved, instead pumping cold air from Alaska and Northern Canada across the Great Plains and into the Gulf South.
โWeโve been in that pattern for really the last week or so, and it looks like we will continue to have that at least through the weekend and then early next week,โ Grigsby said. โWe may start to see it begin to modify a little bit and become not as amplified.โ
Icy conditions and loss of power are not expected to be as much of a problem this weekend as they were this past weekend.
The biggest threat is exposure to the cold, Grigsby said. He urged the public to remember to protect the four Pโs: people, pets, plants and pipes.