FIRST ALERT FORECAST: A couple more hard freezes the next couple of nights before a big weekend thaw

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Temperatures have warmed up enough across parts of Southwest Louisiana to continue the thaw, while most of Allen, Beauregard and Vernon parishes have remained at or near freezing all day, limiting the thawing of ice that lingers on the ground, roofs and bridges. Patches of black ice on roads will be a concern tonight for our northern parishes, but locations along and south of I-10 should not have travel difficulties overnight.

The good news is that we managed to escape impacts of the third winter storm of the week blanketing most of Texas and parts of northwestern Louisiana with more ice and snow today. The issue we’ll have tonight is another hard freeze with temperatures ranging from the lower 20s north to upper 20s farther south. A Hard Freeze Warning is in effect for all parishes except the coastal parishes for tonight through mid-morning Friday.

Even better news is that sunshine will be on the return tomorrow, helping to warm temperatures up into the middle to upper 40s. Another hard freeze will be on the way for Saturday morning with lower to middle 20s for lows. Lots of sunshine on Saturday will be accompanied by highs in the middle to upper 40s. This should melt away any residual ice on roads and bridges that linger across Southwest Louisiana.

We’ll continue to become gradually milder through Sunday with highs back into the 50s. A could of cool fronts on the way will bring back the chance of a few showers Sunday night into Monday morning but only slightly dropping temperatures back on Monday into the upper 50s. Another chance of rain will be back with our second front next week by Wednesday night into Thursday. In the meantime, a slow warming trend next week will send highs back into the 60s to near 70 by Tuesday and Wednesday with no freezes of wintry precipitation in the forecast next week.

First Alert Meteorologist Ben Terry

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