As the weekend approaches, we’re getting set for another winter storm across the Hoosier state.
After two brutally cold days in Friday and Saturday, our eyes will shift to a potentially hefty snow storm late Saturday night into Monday morning. This will be a bit of a different set up from what previous storms this winter have provided. A relatively “flat” wave of low pressure will move out of the southern Plains Saturday and slowly through the southern Ohio Valley Sunday. Widespread precipitation will overspread the region late Saturday night and continue through most of Sunday, and even into early Monday in some cases. This will be a relatively long duration event and the impacts will likely be high from a travel perspective Sunday into Monday morning.
Concerning precipitation type, we still believe the combination of a bitterly cold pattern and a widespread snow pack will play a significant role in this event. It’s always difficult to get more than a wintry form of precipitation when moisture “attacks” true arctic air. As of now we see this storm being an all snow event for places around and north of the I-70 corridor. South of there, it’s possible mixing gets involved- including potentially some freezing rain downstate.
Due to the fact that this should be a rather prolonged event, significant snowfall will be possible where precipitation stays (or remains predominantly) snow.
Here’s our best guess where the heaviest snowfall potential lies currently. Remember, snow totals won’t necessarily follow the clean lines below. This should be used as guidance at this point for where we’re focusing our attention for the potential of heaviest snowfall totals. Being that this is still an event late Saturday night through Monday morning, obviously things are subject to change. We’ll have our first specific accumulation map posted Friday evening. Stay tuned.
