A front will be the rainmaker for the holiday weekend, and we are tracking Elsa in the Atlantic.

THE FORECAST

Today & Tonight: The pattern repeats again today. Temperatures will warm into the mid to upper 80s and some thick cloud cover along with a few showers will keep us out of the 90s. The heat index however will climb into the mid-90s. About 40% of the viewing area, will see showers today. The most active time will be between 11am-3pm with another round possible between 6-8pm. The overnight hours will be dry with temperatures in the 70s.

Up Next: Looking ahead to the weekend, a large upper level boundary is going to drape over most of the US. It will slowly move from north to south concentrating all the available moisture over the Gulf Coast. The front will likely be very weak before reaching the area, so instead of cooling things off, it will be a rainmaker for the area on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Starting Friday afternoon showers will move in from north to south and will still be scattered in nature. On Saturday the front will linger around and spark up more showers and storms in the afternoon. The overall rain coverage for Friday and Saturday will be near 80%, meaning that most areas will see rain. Showers will be most active in the afternoon and it will not be raining constantly all day long. On Sunday the boundary will lose its power and any showers we see will likely spark up in the heat of the afternoon. That is good news for Sunday night fireworks. Most of the shower activity will die out by dark. Click here to see the 7-day forecast.

In the Tropics: Tropical Storm Elsa was named at 4am Thursday. That makes Elsa the earliest ever E named storm. The previous record was held by Edouard named on July 6, 2020.

This storm is in the Atlantic and will move into the Caribbean over the weekend. It is expected to maintain tropical storm status and interact with some Caribbean Islands. The current forecast track has Elsa entering the southeastern Gulf of Mexico early next week, but there is a lot of uncertainty with this system. The tropics are not impacting the local 7-day forecast at this time. VIDEO UPDATE HERE.

Stay with us for timely updates. Click here to visit the WBRZ Hurricane Center.

JUST IN: The latest tropical advisory. For continuing updates and your local forecast visit: https://t.co/Ck61O5l2Ql | #LaWX #MsWX pic.twitter.com/8GE8aLuZbK

— WBRZ Weather (@WBRZweather) July 1, 2021

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