If you leave any parish in Louisiana this afternoon, you will hear them. They never seem to stop, and when they do, there is serious cause for alarm. By “they” in this case, we mean the air conditioning units that serve homes and offices in Eunice, St. Martinville, New Iberia and Abbeville. Their job is critical in Louisiana in August.

But at some point, okay, in about ten days, the calendar will turn a page and it will be September in Louisiana. Most of our high schools and colleges will have started fall football seasons on or before September 1st, and we can look forward to much cooler temperatures, right?

The Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service and NOAA, is tasked with looking into the future. While the scientists at the CPC don’t have a crystal ball, they do have plenty of computers and other great tools that allow them to make an accurate prediction of what our weather might look like over the next 90 days – not just in Louisiana, but across the rest of the country. The CPC also offers an informed assessment of what the weather will be like over the next three months.

The two big factors that CPC scientists consider are temperature and precipitation. October marks the end of Louisiana’s “wet season” and begins the transition into what we call our state’s “dry season.” So for this forecast, we need to consider a “wet month” (September), a “dry month” (November), and a month in between (October) when making our plans.

Here are the CPC’s precipitation predictions for the next 90 days.

Most of Louisiana and southeast Texas are in the “average” range for rainfall. That would be good news if we got enough rain to keep temperatures down and prepare the basin for crawfish season. Last year’s drought took a toll on Louisiana’s crawfish industry, and state agriculture officials are already raising concerns about this year’s crawfish crop.

So that’s the rain forecast, but when we say “refreshing,” we mean temperatures, right? Unfortunately, the temperature forecast isn’t as positive as the precipitation forecast. Here’s what the CPC is expecting for Louisiana and the Gulf South over the next 90 days or so.

As you can see, fall is going to be warmer than normal across the country, with the exception of Alaska. Temperatures in Louisiana will be slightly above normal, but that doesn’t mean it will be as hot as the last three or four weeks.

As October rolls around in Louisiana, our daytime highs tend to be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, while nighttime lows drop to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. By November, you can subtract another ten degrees from each of those averages. So, yes, we’re going to have refreshing temperatures this fall.

And when you compare it to the temperatures and drought conditions we experienced last fall, it will seem very pleasant indeed. Now if we can just avoid what is still forecast to be an active tropical season, we’ll be fine.