Weather Service Reveals Unsettled Christmas Outlook for Louisiana

Earlier this fall we offered speculation about the potential for a "White Christmas" in Louisiana. Let's face it, snow falling at any time in Louisiana is a special and rare event, but to have snowfall and stick to the ground for Christmas Day would be stretching the odds.

It's not that it hasn't happened it's just that it very seldom happens. But here in The Boot we do see our share of frozen precipitation but not usually until January or February. And since we've mentioned the "F" word, that's February, Mardi Gras comes early this year and perhaps we could have another "Carnival on Ice" as we did a few years ago.

This video wasn't from that Mardi Gras but as you can see, it can get pretty ice in February even in the Deep South.

But, we digress, we're talking about Christmas and how the weather will or won't affect your plans. The Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service has issued its official 6-10 outlook for the nation. Those outlooks cover trends in temperature and trends in precipitation. And, based on what they've published it looks as if Louisiana will get the "worst" of both scenarios.

By "worst" I don't mean we'll be looking at severe storms when Santa makes his flight into Louisiana Sunday evening but I do think St Nick will want to put the top up on the sleigh and maybe Rain-X the windshield because the threat of showers appears to be rather large.

As you can see from the graphics above the trend for Louisiana is to have above-normal temperatures and slightly above-average precipitation in the forecast period. For this case, that period is December 22 through December 26.

Here is what the official National Weather Service Outlook for South Louisiana suggests for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve, Sunday appears to be the worst day of weather. The NWS forecast is calling for rain chances of 80% during the day and 60% during the nighttime hours.

The forecast improves a bit for Monday, Christmas Day. The rain chances for December 25th are listed at 40% with an afternoon high temperature of 71 degrees. Which won't be that bad for those who get outside toys and want to play with them. It does appear as though conditions will be improving across the region on Christmas Day. But that improvement might be short-lived as another robust rain chance is forecast for the area on Tuesday, December 26th.

As far as temperatures go, it will be getting warmer as we approach Christmas Weekend. By Saturday our high temperatures will be in the 70s and that won't feel like a "Winter Wonderland" at all. Temperatures will also be at or slightly above 70 degrees on Christmas Day before they start to cool off heading into the New Year's Weekend.

So, if you're dreaming of a brown moist Christmas, you're dream will likely come true. For the rest of us, those darn holiday sweaters we have to wear to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day church sure are going to be hot. Thank goodness we have air conditioning we can use all year round.