Warmer Brand Of Air Briefly Returns, More Cold Temps Coming

Indiana saw its warmest temperatures of the year this week! Many enjoyed the beautiful weather the beginning of the week after last weekend's cool down. In Indianapolis, temperatures went from the 40s over the weekend to 60s on Monday & Tuesday. Tuesday's high temperature of 68° was the warmest since 69° recorded on October 14th. Most cities along and south of I-70 saw 70s! If you can remember back, it was shortly after October 14th where a pattern changed occurred resulting in a prolonged period of below normal temperatures not only responsibly for bringing 5 consecutive months below normal but also one of the coldest winter's in three decades. Despite the cooler trend, there was still a few warm days during the pattern change. One that fueled up a severe weather event October 31st putting a damper on Halloween plans. One of the wettest Halloweens on record. Another in November that helped contributed to one of largest November tornado outbreak in the state and Midwest/Ohio Valley weather history. Here's a list of the days that saw 60+ temps after October 14th.

• OCTOBER 15:  66°
• OCTOBER 16:  64°
• OCTOBER 18:  65°
• OCTOBER 20:  63°
• OCTOBER 21:  62°
• OCTOBER 28:  61°
• OCTOBER 30:  61°
• OCTOBER 31:  65°
• NOVEMBER 6:  60°
• NOVEMBER 9:  60°
• NOVEMBER 16: 61°
• NOVEMBER 17: 66°
• DECEMBER 4:  61°

The warm up earlier in the week was brief as a low pressure system tracked through the Tennessee and Ohio Valley racing up the Eastern Seaboard. Thunderstorms came through producing 1.26" of precipitation between 2AM to 8AM Wednesday morning. As temperatures fell back from 50° at midnight to 31° by 1oAM the rain made a transition over to snow. Total snowfall from this system only amounted to 0.4" but it was enough to stick to grassy areas, cars, and rooftops. Gusty winds in excess of 40mph was also the story of the day. The peak wind gust at Indianapolis International Airport was 41 mph. Wednesday marked the the 33rd time since November 11th measurable snowfall has fallen in the city. Here's a list of all the measurable snow dates totaling 55.2". New daily snowfall records are highlighted "RED" and denoted with an "R". By the way, the average date for the last measurable snowfall is March 30th.

NOVEMBER 11: 0.1" DECEMBER 05: 2.9" DECEMBER 06: 1.6" DECEMBER 08: 0.2" DECEMBER 09: 0.1" DECEMBER 10: 0.4" DECEMBER 13: 1.2" DECEMBER 14: 1.4" DECEMBER 16: 1.0" JANUARY 02:  6.1"

JANUARY 05: 11.4" (R) JANUARY 09: 0.7" JANUARY 16: 2.4" JANUARY 17: 0.3" JANUARY 18: 2.4" JANUARY 21: 1.1" JANUARY 22: 0.5" JANUARY 24: 0.2" JANUARY 25: 1.6" JANUARY 31: 0.2"

FEBRUARY 02: 1.0" FEBRUARY 04: 6.8" (R) FEBRUARY 05: 0.6" FEBRUARY 06: 0.3" FEBRUARY 09: 0.6" FEBRUARY 14: 5.5" (R) FEBRUARY 15: 0.8" FEBRUARY 16: 0.3" FEBRUARY 17: 0.3" FEBRUARY 21: 0.1"

FEB. 25:  0.2" MARCH 02: 2.4" MARCH 12: 0.4"

On Thursday morning, temperatures fell back into the teens across Central Indiana. The official low temperature in Indianapolis was 15°. This marked the 62nd day the temp has fallen 19° and below since the very 1st occurrence on November 13th. There was some rays of sunshine in the morning but clouds invaded during the afternoon. Temperatures slowly climbed in the mid 30s Thursday afternoon. An approaching warm front began to push away these clouds allowing for some clearing Thursday night. Temperatures reached a high of 38°. As the front has passed and the southern winds have kicked up, temperatures for Friday afternoon will surge into the upper 50s and lower 60s. Though it will be a rather breezy day with gusts up to 35 mph, we'll keep the sunshine all day long.
A weak cold front will pass tonight which could bring a few isolated sprinkles or showers. Most remain dry. Another cold font comes through over the weekend. We'll squeeze out one more mild day on Saturday with temperatures slightly cooler than Friday reaching the lower 50s. The warm up will be brief. Sunday, winter is back once again as the Northern (colder) jet & Southern (wetter) jet merges. Temperatures will not make it out of the 30s and there will be a chance for a wintry mix. Some snow accumulation can be expected. Exact numbers are unknown as the storm track is unknown but the focus will be in Central & Southern Indiana. I'll try to have more another update on this in a future blog. Quick note though, any accumulations will likely be in the grassy areas, cars, and rooftops. Most of the snow may melt on the pavement (i.e. streets, interstates, sidewalks).



***10 DAY WEATHER OUTLOOK***
AVG HIGH/LOW: 51/32 || SUNRISE/SUNSET: 7:58am/7:51pm || SPRING BEGINS MAR 20th at 12:57PM