By T. Scott Boatright
The National Weather Service predicts a bright and mostly sunny Easter for Lincoln Parish.
A large area of high pressure has enveloped most of the central U.S. and is expected to provide dry and stable conditions in the ArkLaTex region, including Lincoln Parish, through the middle of next week.
High temperatures on Sunday are expected to be near 73 degrees F with low temperatures near 48. Temperatures are expected to continue to gradually increase each day with highs in the mid- to upper-80s by Wednesday.
An email sent by Lincoln Parish Director of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness Kip Franklin Thursday morning said, “Looks like a beautiful Easter weekend. We’ll have low temperatures in the morning, and comfortable temperatures in the afternoons and evenings through the mid part of next week.”
That’s good news for Lincoln Parish, which on Easter Day of last year (April 12) saw an oubreak of storms that caused some wind damage in the western part of the parish as well as more widespread damage toward Shreveport.
That wasn’t the only stormy Easter Sunday for the parish in recent memory.
On Easter Day in 2011 (April 26), according to weather.gov, an EF-0 tornado blew down trees along La. Hwy. 818 between Clay and Woodville in far northern Jackson Parish. The storm then paralleled Hwy 167 knocking down trees before dissipating near the Ruston Golf and Country Club in the southern sections of Ruston.
While the weather looks good for Easter Day, things got a little shaky for part of the north Lousiana region heading into Good Friday.
At around 2:26 a.m. Thursday, a 3.0 earthquake was reported in Caddo Parish, west of Blanchard, and about 12 miles northwest of Shreveport. he earthquake was reported to be centered 3.1 miles under the ground.
While it hasn’t happened for more than two centuries, Louisiana has felt tremors from major earthquakes before.
Multiple devastating earthquakes hit the United States in 1811 and 1812 the epicenter of which was the New Madrid fault area. These quakes were some of the largest ever experienced in the USA and the effects were across north Louisiana and all the way to the southern parts of the state, including New Orleans.
Since 1843, the U.S. Geological Survey says that more than 40 earthquakes felt in or around Louisiana.