Highlights:
- Light snow showers makes things slick in spots
- Reinforcing cold air arrives with a band of snow Thursday
- Watching a southern Winter Storm this weekend
Wintry Times…We’re waking up to light snow showers across central Indiana, thanks to just enough upper level energy interacting with the colder air. Coverage of snow showers will be greatest this morning. As we look forward, reinforcing cold air will blow into town Thursday evening. Ahead of this cold front, look for a band of precipitation to develop around, or just after, the lunchtime hour. For central and northern portions of the state, this will fall in the form of snow with a rain/ snow mix expected across southern sections of the state. A quick dusting to 1″ of snow is possible Thursday afternoon. Areas of lake effect snow will then develop across the northern Indiana snow belt Thursday night.
We close the week on a dry note, but all eyes will be aimed to our south on a major winter storm. The Southern Appalachians continue to look like the “sweet spot” for this storm- including snow amounts that will require a yardstick to measure by the time all is said and done early next week. Back here on the home front, we remain confident the brunt of this storm will remain south of central Indiana, but the potential is there for a bit of snow to “sneak” into the forecast Sunday- courtesy of upper level energy on the tail end of the storm. Stay tuned as we continue to review the data over the next couple days. If you’re a skier, we suggest packing the bags and heading southeast to the mountains of NC for some tremendous early season skiing early next week in the wake of the storm.
Early next week will feature calmer conditions with moderating temperatures as high pressure returns.
II. Wet Halloween: A cold front will approach the state Tuesday evening into our Halloween. Widespread rain is expected Wednesday, BUT the silver lining may be that the bulk of precipitation will be shoved to our southeast before most trick-or-treaters take to the streets.
III. Chilly Open To November: Reinforcing chilly air will blow into town behind the cold front and set the stage for an unseasonably chilly open to November. Generally, lows will fall into the middle 30s and highs will top out in the upper 40s for the first few days of the month.
IV. Raw Saturday: It’s a “rinse and repeat” scenario as next weekend opens raw and wet thanks to a new storm system moving through the region. Gusty showers and unseasonably cool temperatures can be expected Saturday. Note the possibility of wet snow to fall on the northern periphery of the storm system through IA, MN, and WI. (Signs of the times).
V. Wet Pattern: After a long stretch of dry weather through the balance of October, a big shift in the pattern is taking place now and will continue to promote well above normal rainfall as we move through the first couple weeks of November. In some cases, the upcoming (10) days alone may yield 3″ to 4″ of rain in some areas of the region.
That storm system will settle south and begin to impact central Indiana early next week with storm chances increasing Monday into Tuesday. With rich tropical moisture in place, locally heavy rain will be likely as the front moves in.
Models are in overall agreement of additional significant rainfall early next week (widespread 1″ to 2″).
