Sheriff: No weather incidents reported

Staff Report
Despite temperatures reaching 28 degrees this morning, no related traffic incidents or closures were reported, but school attendance was down about 4 percent compared to Thursday, according to parish officials.
St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office Spokeswoman Traci Landry said no weather-related incidents occurred overnight into the morning. Temperatures were not cold enough when precipitation was on the roads or bridges to cause any ice to form, Landry said.
Attendance today in St. Mary Parish Schools was 89.26 percent for the district, down 4 percent from Thursday’s attendance of 93.26 percent, St. Mary Parish Superintendent of Schools Donald Aguillard. The weekly average for Monday through Friday is 92.65 percent.
The National Weather Service reported that temperatures at Harry P. Williams Memorial Airport in Patterson got down to 28 degrees with a wind chill of 19 degrees as of 6:35 a.m. today, which was the lowest temperature recorded at the airport in the past 24 hours.
The National Weather Service shows forecast projects today’s weather to be mostly sunny with a high near 52 and a north wind 10 to 15 miles per hour. Tonight’s low is expected to be around 37 degrees. Saturday should be mostly sunny with a high near 62, according to the National Weather Service.
Saturday night will be mostly cloudy with a low around 46. Rain will move into the forecast Sunday with a 30 percent chance of showers with the high reaching near 67. Showers are likely Sunday night with a low around 53 with the rain chance rising to 60 percent, according to the weather service.
A light freeze is expected again tonight along the I019 corridor.
The weather service expects the rain to continue Monday, and it may be heavy at times as an active southern jet stream affects the region’s weather.
Much of Louisiana is below normal for precipitation this year, the service said.
The Mississippi River is down because of dry conditions along its length. As a result, the Atchafalaya at Simmesport was at 77 percent its normal flow as of Wednesday.
The weather service characterizes the spring flooding potentional of the Atchafalaya as normal, depending on the extent of the snow melt in the upper Mississippi River region and spring rains locally.