Lake effect snows are moving away this morning in northern Indiana. Temperatures this morning are not as cold as what we saw yesterday, but that will be short lived. A secondary blast of cold air is coming for the weekend. Our forecast basically unchanged from yesterday.
Clouds will increase toward midday, and we have a quick moving clipper system coming later in the day. Snow may start to develop in west central parts of Indiana this afternoon, and will move southeast into the evening. Snow will be exiting the state by shortly after midnight. Snow totals are still not that impressive. We are calling for a coating to 1” in most areas, with coverage of snow at nearly 70% of the state. We won’t rule out an occasional 1.5”-2” in west central and central Indiana, but those are far from a sure thing. The system is moving very fast, and that will keep snows from being too big of a problem. However, winds will come in strong behind the clipper, so blowing snow may be an issue on into Saturday. The strong north wind set up will trigger lake effect snows in northern Indiana, and clouds off and on through the rest of the state. Lake snows will stay in the same areas we mentioned yesterday (Porter, Laporte, St. Joe and Starke and then on east north of US 30) and could continue from tomorrow afternoon all the way through Monday. Accumulations can be significant in those areas, particularly directly south of the Lake, and other areas will see just flurries and a few snow squalls from time to time. The rest of the state will succumb to the cold air, with temps will below normal, and we look for this cold air mass to be colder than what we saw come in over Christmas weekend. Low wind chills will be seen for at least the balance of tomorrow and Sunday thanks to the strong winds.
Next week, we start January with more cold air. The entire week should have back to back to back days of temps in the single digits and below zero. A couple of minor snows may pop up through the week…A coating to an inch for Wednesday with 60% coverage, and then another clipper with a coating to 2” for late Thursday night (4th) through Friday (5th). Generally, though, snow is not the headline for next week….cold air is.
In the extended window, we could be looking at another major winter storm arriving around the 7th-8th of January as a strong front sweeps in and moisture comes up the front from the south. IT is followed quickly by a similar surge for the 9th-10th. If these two come through in rapid succession as is currently being projected, we could be looking at significant snows as we move through the first part of January. Strong winds would be expected with any such frontal passage. Temperatures are expected to moderate ahead of those systems slightly, coming off the bitter cold levels we see next week, but we expect below normal temps right on into mid-January, which would mean that snow would be the primary precipitation type.