Weather Service Warns of Louisiana Severe Weather Threat Thursday

The weather in Louisiana has certainly garnered a lot of talk here lately. Most of what you've been reading and hearing about involves an influx of colder air that is expected to bring Louisiana its lowest temperatures of the season so far.

Well before you start dripping pipes and creating a place to bring your pets inside you might want to prepare for some strong storms that are forecast to occur well before the Arctic plunge arrives.

Louisiana has already experienced a severe weather event this week. We had strong storms move across the state on Monday. The threat of those storms and the flooding rains and gusty winds they contained were enough to cause changes in the school day for many school systems.

It's unlikely the severe weather threat that is forecast for Thursday will result in those kinds of actions but this is Louisiana and sometimes Mother Nature doesn't pay any attention to the local weatherman on television.

The Storm Prediction Center has placed the entire state of Louisiana at risk for severe storms on Thursday and especially Thursday evening into Friday morning. You can see in the graphic above the greatest area of concern on Thursday will be north of US 190. That part of the state is at a slight risk of severe storms. The area south of US 190 is in the marginal risk category. If you're unsure what "slight" and "marginal" mean. This graphic from the National Weather Service will help.

What is the Timing of Louisiana's Severe Weather Thursday?

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Lake Charles is suggesting that the daylight hours of Thursday will be quite nice. It should be partly cloudy and the high temperature will be around 70. It's after sundown that conditions begin to deteriorate around the region.

Forecasters say that rain chances will begin to ramp up just before midnight. The best chance for strong and severe storms appears to be midnight or later. So technically, we're talking about Friday morning. Rain and storm chances will be around 80% for late Thursday and early Friday. The confidence in this forecast is rather high, so do make sure to have the  "Weather Alerts" turned on. You can do that by visiting the settings tab in our station App.

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Friday morning could be a bumpy start for the workday and the school day as there will still be a significant threat of storms in the area. By Friday afternoon the showers and storms should move out of the state but the big issue will be the wind and the plummeting temperatures. The NWS says wind gusts of 50 mph or stronger are possible on Friday morning and that should add to the misery of the falling mercury in the thermometer.

While it will be cold and getting colder, the real chill is forecast for Louisiana next week. The Monday night low is forecast to be near 20 degrees and that will bring about an entirely new set of problems for Tuesday and Wednesday.