FIRST ALERT FORECAST: We continue to bake in the heat as rain remains unlikely for SW LA

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Hopefully we enjoyed the rain we got last week because the trends continue to look drier and drier for Southwest Louisiana over the days ahead when it comes to rain chances. Initially the thought was a weak front would interact with the area by Saturday but that front won’t make it thanks to a relentless upper level ridge of high pressure. The closest storms get will be north and southeast Louisiana, bypassing our area with the only best chance of rain we would see. By next week, the upper-level ridge will rebuild and take away any hope of rain by early next week.

Daily forecast high temperatures will continue to rise higher and higher as a result, topping out in the middle 90s each day and resulting in heat index values around 100 to 103 each afternoon.

The tropics remain quiet with no new development over the next week expected. A plume of dust from Africa continues moving across the Atlantic and will be arriving in the Gulf this weekend. We’ll see our haziest skies by early next week. This dust further suppresses tropical development, including our daily rain chances and does reduce the air quality a bit as well.

First Alert Meteorologist Ben Terry

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