Busy times continue in the good ole weather office as we get set to deal with yet another winter storm during the upcoming weekend.
First, we’ll deal with more below zero temperatures tonight and Saturday morning as overnight lows bottom out between 5 and 10 degrees below zero tonight area-wide. Wind chill values, of course, will be even colder (-15 to -25). Dangerous cold continues with considerable blowing and drifting in the open country. Saturday will be the “calm before the storm” with unseasonably cold conditions continuing, but with lighter winds and sunshine.
Clouds will increase Saturday night into Sunday and we’ll begin to introduce precipitation into your forecast as early as Sunday afternoon (not a bad day for two classic back-to-back playoff games if you ask me). Here’s our best idea of what you can expect statewide after reviewing all guidance today:
Some initial thinking would place the following numbers (a bit early to be too specific), and we caution this will have to be fine tuned as we move forward.
Snow accumulation of 2″-4″ across north-central Indiana, particularly just north of Indianapolis. In the “mainly snow” zone, expect amounts of 3″-6″. Ice storm criteria accumulation of freezing rain is possible (0.25″, or greater) across central Indiana, as well. South of the city, early ideas suggest roughly 1″-2″ of snow and glaze potential closer to that potentially damaging 0.25″ amount. Again, we state that these numbers are very early ideas and will have to be fine tuned.
Precipitation should initially overspread central Indiana Sunday afternoon in the form of sleet and snow (more sleet south-central, more snow north-central) before transitioning to more of a sleet and freezing rain event. Finally, we anticipate the wintry mixture of precipitation to end as snow before moving out Monday morning. Timing and duration of precipitation types will obviously determine how much ice and snow a given location sees.
Another big item we want to be sure to mention is that yet ANOTHER push of bitter arctic air will invade behind this storm and set the stage for another dangerously cold period Tuesday into Wednesday (back below zero we go)!
Stay tuned as we continue to fine tune the forecast over the weekend!