There’s just something special about seeing the first flakes of the season. While this initial wintry event won’t be a big deal accumulation-wise for central IN, a few inches of snow will be likely across northern portions of the state Saturday. Here’s our initial snowfall forecast, brought to you by the IndySportsReport.com.
The next two days will be easy and rather “boring” as far as the weather goes. Look for more in the way of sunshine today before clouds begin increasing as Friday progresses into evening. The initial push of moisture should reach central IN Friday night (as rain). Rain will then transition to snow showers before ending across central IN Saturday morning into the early afternoon. Farther north, look for a quicker transition to snow where we forecast a 2″-4″ type accumulation event for places along and north of a Newton County to De Kalb County line. This is an early call and may require some fine tuning as we go through the next 24 hours. We’re about as confident as we can be with the forecast at this juncture, but do note a couple differences with the track of the low between the various models we use.
Here’s the track set-up:
A wave of low pressure will “scoot” east, northeast Friday into Saturday as highlighted here by the fine folks at Weatherbell.com.
Enough of a south wind will keep us just warm enough to provide mainly a rain event for central and southern portions of the state. Colder air will be deeper and more entrenched across northern IN where this should be a mainly snow event. As the winds quickly whip around to the NW Saturday morning, temperatures will plummet and lingering moisture will quickly transition to snow for all of the state.
Behind the rain-to-snow event Saturday morning, the coldest air of the season will plunge into the state. Lows Sunday morning will fall into the teens for many of central IN, especially if we can lay down a snow cover up north. Throw in a gusty NW wind and wind chill values in the single digits are a good bet.
Can things still change with the track of this storm? Absolutely. While we feel as confident as we can be at this stage in the game, we do note a couple differences with the track of this area of low pressure (as mentioned above) between the various computer models we use. We’ll continue to keep a close eye on things. One other item of note is the relatively warm surface temperatures and that will cut back on accumulations across not only central, but northern parts of the state, as well. Much more later!
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