Highlights:
- Freezing fog this morning
- Mid and late week rain
- Briefly milder mid-month
Slow It Down…Freezing fog is creating slick travel in and around the city, itself, and points north. Please allow extra time to reach your destination this morning and take it slow. As we move into the afternoon, the low clouds and fog should slowly lift, but it’s likely not until we get to mid to late afternoon. With the longer period of fog and clouds, we’ve dropped forecast highs a few degrees today.
We should still get in on a sunny Tuesday before our first of a series of storm system begin to impact the area Wednesday. Weak low pressure will result in increasing clouds and a narrow band of showers Wednesday afternoon. Rain may mix with snow across north-central parts of the state.
As we look ahead, a slow moving (bigger) storm system spells periods of wet weather as we close the week and head into the weekend. While it won’t rain the entire time, periods of moderate to heavy rain are possible during the period, along with gusty winds, and an overall “raw” feel. Early thinking here is that we salvage the 2nd half of the weekend with at least a touch of sun.
II. As we look ahead, our next weather system will scoot into the region over the weekend. This will be a weak event and we only expect a light mixture of snow and rain Saturday evening.
III. The balance of Thanksgiving week looks rather quiet, but chilly, thanks to high pressure. The stretch of below to well below normal temperatures will continue, overall.
IV. As we look ahead, the pattern sure looks cold and stormy as we open December. On that note, the majority of data continues to trend colder for the month of December, as a whole, and with high latitude blocking in place, we’d expect to see an active storm track across the country. If you like it cold and active for the holidays, you just might be in luck this year… More on that later!
Looking ahead, a rather prolonged and significant snow event is setting up shop across northern Indiana. We forecast snow to begin falling Thursday night before becoming heavy at times Friday. A tight thermal gradient will aid in the combination of ingredients to produce hefty snowfall across far northern IN and also provide a brief break from the cold, locally, Friday afternoon (forecasting highs into the 40s here). With that said, if your travels take you north, prepare for significant travel disruptions with the heavy snow.
A cold front will drop south into central Indiana overnight Friday into Saturday. At the same time, a couple of disturbances will ride northeast along the front. This will result in periods of light wintry precipitation across central Indiana over the upcoming weekend. Initially, this should be rather insignificant with a mix of light rain and perhaps some light sleet or light freezing rain Saturday.
However, as our airmass becomes progressively colder Saturday night into Sunday things will become more interesting. At the same time, a final wave of energy will lift northeast, spreading moisture into the colder air mass. We forecast more widespread wintry precipitation to engulf central Indiana Saturday night into Sunday. A wintry mix of sleet and snow is possible early on before transitioning to all snow Sunday morning. A period of accumulating snow is expected Sunday and we’ll fine tune numbers as we move closer.
Looking further ahead, an active time of things will continue as the battle remains between cold centering itself across the northern Plains into the Lakes and Ohio Valley and resistance from the southeast ridge. This will continue to lead to a busy period of weather across the region, including storm systems that will come along every couple of days.
We continue to think things are aligning in a fashion that should result in a significant period of cold developing during the second half of February into March this year. We note the teleconnections continue to trend in cold directions and the MJO is also rolling along into the colder phases. We have a long, long ways to go this winter and think some headline events remain on the table as we close the month and open March. Time will tell.
Highlights: