The last week of February is expected to be a cold one.

The cold front that hit the area Monday is expected to be followed by another later in the week, which will drop temperatures into the mid 30s by the weekend.

Temperatures aren’t expected to get out of the 60s for the rest of the week, while low temperatures are predicted to range from 34-36 degrees Thursday through Saturday, with highs in the 50s.

“We are back into the wintertime pattern,” said Kent Kuyper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.

The good news, Kuyper said, is that the “the next front looks dry.”

So far this year, 16.59 inches of rain have fallen in Southwest Louisiana, similar to the 16.81 inches that the area saw in January and February of 2012.

The area saw 11.38 inches of rain fall in January and has seen 21.41 inches since Dec. 1.

It’s a continuation of a change from the drought conditions that affected the area the past several years — the last comparable numbers were in 2004 when Southwest Louisiana got 16.82 inches of rain in January and February.

“Weather patterns above us have changed and it’s allowed more rain to come up from the Gulf,” Kuyper said.

He expects things to level off in March.

“It should slow down; everything has a tendency to balance itself out,” he said.

(mgnonline.com)