Weekend Weather Report

Brace yourself! We are going from snow to thunderstorms in just a matter of 48-56 hrs. Well the storm system that started off West has now pushed off to the East Coast and soon will completely move out of the U.S.These past few days have been pretty treacherous for most of the nation. It all started off the West Coast. Tuesday Thru Thursday, Seattle got hammered with a snow/ice storm that produced nearly an inch of freezing rain/sleet/ice and record setting snowfall of 6.8" Wednesday topping 7" Thursday. This crippling Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The heaviest band in the Olympia area, 14-17" recorded.
This system pushed its way off East and crossed its way through the Midwest. The system passed through Chicago dropping 7" snow at Midway and a little over 9" in Joliet, IL. Pushed its way to Indiana Thursday late Morning/Early Afternoon and stalling into the evening hours. The Northern portions of the state was primarily hit with snow. Gary,IN reported 7" of snow and Lafeyette, IN received in 3" Indianapolis southward received mostly freezing rain/sleet/ice, 0.6" reported at Indpls Int'l Airport. These conditions made for a hazardous travel, just a little bit can make your tires spin regardless if you a four wheeler or not, easily losing control. Dozens of accidents and slideoffs were logged around the state of Indiana.
Temp were cold sitting around 20°, so why did we get freezing rain?
Well folks, this is commonly referenced to a 3 layer cake. Your top layer is cold and snow, middle layer is warm air, and bottom layer is cold air. Snow passes through warm air turning into rain but as it passes through cold air it can either freeze turning to sleet or stay as liquid freezes on impact to the Earths surface.
Salt trucks have been working around the clock and now that this system has moved out, the weekend weather will improve, we'll stay dry before it looks like the work week will start off on the wet side.
This storm system pushed off to the Northeast today. New England expecting 6" of snow before the end of the night. I have a few snowfall totals as of 4pm today.
-North Haven, Connecticut- 12"
-Acushnet, Massachusettes- 11"
-Little Compton, Rhode Island- 8"
-Ringwood, New Jersey- 8"
-Bellwood, Pennsylvania-7.4"
-New York Central Park-4.3"
-Newark, New Jersey-3.3"

Some impressive totals. Visibility in New York was reduced so much due to snow, the Statue of Liberty became invisible in the skyline. If you ride South to South Carolina they currently have severe thunderstorm warnings affecting the primary voting. It stretches southwestward to southern Mississippi too.
An area of low pressure is forecast to move across the Missouri Valley into Illinois on Sunday afternoon and Sunday night. This storm will pull moisture northward - along with warmer temperatures. Strong wind fields aloft will help fuel thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon and evening. Some of these storms could rotate because of the way wind fields are situated.This will move towards Indiana Sunday evening into Monday morning. The threat still continues, southern Indiana could be on a Tornado watch but for Indianapolis, the biggest threat will be damaging winds, and hail. Temps will be around the half century mark and may fall back into the low 30s Monday evening once the system moves out. There is the possibility of snow showers Monday afternoon when temps drop.
This system will get out and clear things up for some Tuesday Sunshine. We have a chance of Wintry Mix Wednesday but should relatively stay dry for the remainder of the work week and another warm up to near 50 by next Friday. High temps looks to be mostly in the 40s all week, upper 30s for Tuesday. Fast Forward to Super Bowl. I've had a little sneak peak and its hinting snow showers but no real threat of any major accumulations. May throw us a quick dusting. Too early to tell, far too out. I'll keep an eye on it and update back very soon.


-