Weather or not: Despite rain, you can pick your Mardi Gras moments

Published 8:39 am Thursday, February 8, 2018

By Ken Stickney

Ken.stickney@panews.com

If you don’t like Port Arthur’s Mardi Gras weather, wait a minute.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

Or so.

That’s what a National Weather Service meteorologist suggested Wednesday, as he peered into the weather possibilities for the coming four days of downtown Port Arthur party weather.

Mardi Gras opens Thursday evening at the downtown festival grounds from Austin Avenue to Atlanta Avenue and ends Sunday evening after Keyun and the Zydeco Masters end their set on the Main Stage.

In between, party goers will enjoy parades and music all during what may be intermittent rain.

NWS meteorologist Kent Kuyper said chances of rain are slim Thursday, perhaps 10 percent, but pick up considerably as the weekend nears.

Chance of rain is 40 percent Friday, 70 percent Saturday and 60 percent Sunday.

That doesn’t mean non-stop, drenching rain but enough rain at times to make folks uncomfortable.

“Bring an umbrella, just to be on the safe side,” Kuyper said.

He said a rain front was coming this way Wednesday. Some systems will come from the northwest, and there’s moisture off the Gulf of Mexico.

“It’s just not a really dry year,” he said.

But the weekend should have dry moments, too.

“It’s not looking at all like much in the way of rain,” he said. For example, expected rainfall Sunday is .2 inches, “enough to make you wet and miserable” if you’re standing in the rain without an umbrella.

“But there will be breaks in the weather,” he added. “There will be windows. If you’re fog, you’ll love it.”

Expect some thunder and perhaps lightning, too, at times, he suggested. Keep an eye toward the sky and pick your party moments.