Highlights:
- Showers this evening
- Snow squalls develop Thursday evening
- Active weather pattern into next week
Early Sun Gives Way To Showers By Evening…A sunny, frosty start to the day will give way to an increasingly cloudy sky by afternoon and scattered showers by evening. Latest data suggests showers arrive into central Indiana by 6-7p. This won’t be a significant rain maker, but just enough to create damp conditions as we put a wrap on Wednesday.
A reinforcing push of cold air will blow through Thursday evening. With enough instability and upper air energy, scattered heavy snow squalls will become likely across the region by afternoon into the evening. This won’t be a “uniform” snow event, but some localized accumulation (thinking a coating to less than 1″ in spots), along with dramatic drops in visibility can be expected by evening as these scattered snow squalls increase in coverage. Additionally, winds will gust to 40 MPH and will aid in creating hazardous travel at times tomorrow PM. Scattered snow showers will continue into the day Friday.
Moving forward, we continue to eye the potential of a light wintry mix arriving on New Year’s Eve. As of now, this doesn’t appear to be a big deal, but we’ll monitor things as new data streams in. “Light” is the key word for now and temperatures look marginal, at best, for wintry issues.
As we rumble into next week, model consistency and overall agreement is rather non-existent. This leads to a lower than normal confidence on the important details in regards to the early week storm system (and looking forward, towards a second storm coming along just beyond the current forecast period). For now we’ll go with showers Monday afternoon paving way to more widespread rain Tuesday. As colder air rushes in Tuesday night, precipitation will change to snow along with a strengthening northwest wind and an increasingly bitter feel by the middle of next week.
Upcoming 7-Day Precipitation Forecast:
- Snowfall: 1″ – 2″
- Rainfall: 0.50″ – 1.00″
The heavy, dense, arctic air will win out as evening turns into nighttime. Indianapolis is back to the freezing mark around 6p and into the 20s by 9p.
Temperatures will continue to fall through the day Sunday and by Monday morning central Indiana will be in the single digits, with below zero readings across northern parts of the state.
Wind chill values of 10 to 20 degrees below zero will be common by Sunday night into Monday morning across central Indiana.
Areas of drizzle and freezing drizzle will continue across the region into the early afternoon, but begin to expand in coverage and intensity once again by evening. Note the area of freezing rain expand across central IN, including Indianapolis, between 4p and 7p.
Freezing rain will eventually begin to mix with sleet and eventually transition to light snow during the overnight from northwest to southeast. A coating of snow to less than 1″ is a good bet on the new icy glaze that develops tonight.
2.) Our next storm will approach Friday evening. Clouds will increase and thicken as the day gives way to evening and a wintry mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain will overspread central IN Friday night. With snow on the ground and the recent bitter blast, we have concerns the cold air won’t be “dislodged” as quickly as last weekend. The end result may be a period of accumulating freezing rain/ sleet Friday night into early Saturday morning. We’ll keep a close eye on things.
Regardless, icy precipitation will transition to rain during the day Saturday as temperatures briefly surge above freezing. “Brief” is the key word there as temperatures plummet Saturday night, courtesy of fresh arctic air oozing back in. A secondary wave of moisture may result in additional wintry issues Saturday night. Additionally, with sharply colder air returning, “flash freeze” concerns loom Saturday night, as well.
4.) Our attention then shifts to what may very well be an active Christmas week in the weather department. We continue to think the frigid times of this week will relax. That said, it’ll remain cold enough with a favorable storm track to result in wintry issues as Christmas nears. Far too early for specifics with this 10+ days out, but keep it in the back of your mind that the weather pattern continues to look active and at least present a threat of wintry precipitation at times Christmas week.