More April Snow Ahead…

Our Sunday is beginning on a cold, but dry note.  Despite starting in the lower and middle 20s, at least we have the sunshine to greet us out the door!

The clouds we see to our west are associated with a storm system that will deliver another round of accumulating April snow to central Indiana late tonight and early Monday.

We should hold onto the sunshine into the afternoon hours before those clouds begin to increase, eventually lowering and thickening through the evening hours.

Timing: Snow should begin to impact western portions of the state around 10p, or so, before advancing east and reaching the city, itself, around 11p.

Snow will then overspread the rest of the state during the overnight and come down at a moderate clip at times, especially for the western half of the state.

Snow will continue through the predawn hours Monday before tapering to snow showers closer to the Monday morning rush.

While temperatures will hover around freezing through the majority of the event, the recent unseasonably cold conditions will allow the possibility of a few slick spots on area roadways during the overnight and predawn hours.  Take it slow if you plan to be out and about early Monday morning.

Accumulation:  Most of central Indiana can expect around an inch of wet snow by sunrise Monday, but there will be a few folks (especially west of the I-65 corridor) where a couple of inches of snow will fall.

As we look ahead into the upcoming work week, the big story will be a push of spring-like warmth late week (lower 70s Thursday and mid to upper 70s Friday).  With that said, the warmth won’t hold as a negative NAO continues to dominate.  The end result will be a quick return to unseasonably cold conditions this time next week.  That cold will then take us through the balance of the rest of the month…

Light At The End Of The Tunnel? Think Again.

March sure has been a wild month!  Indianapolis is running close to 4° below average on the month with around one foot of snow.  The highlight was obviously the 10.2″ of snow that fell last Saturday.

Largely this was driven by the return of blocking- something that has been missing most of this winter and, for that matter, the past couple of winters.  Note the prolonged, sustained negative NAO.  As we’ve written in the past, the NAO, or North Atlantic Oscillation, is the “king” this time of year.  In late winter and spring, negative NAO phases will result in cold periods, even in the face of potentially warmer signals from other, less dominant, teleconnections.

As we look ahead, we don’t really see any significant changes with the forecast NAO into mid-April.

To no surprise, the pattern remains colder than average over the next couple of weeks, overall.

European ensemble predicts well below normal temperatures in the Day 5-10 period, courtesy of Weathermodels.com.

European ensemble predicts well below normal temperatures in the Day 10-15 period, courtesy of Weathermodels.com.

With all of the cold around, it should also be no surprise that at least the threat of additional accumulating snow is on the table.  In fact, an item of “interest” will eject out of the Rocky Mountain region and into the Plains and eastern half of the country in the 8-10 day period.  It’s far too early for specifics, but at least the potential of accumulating snow is present next weekend across the Ohio Valley.