Doppler 13 weather blog live: Wednesday night storm update
Heavy snowfall will form later this morning in northwest Indiana.
INDIANAPOLIS – The first phase of the winter storm begins in just hours, as the rain/snow line crosses northwest Indiana.
It’s hard to believe, given temperatures remained in the 50s at midnight Wednesday morning, but a band of heavy snow is developing later that morning from Lafayette-Kokomo-Marion through Wednesday afternoon out back of an arctic cold front.
Be aware that south of this limit there will be mostly cold rain on Wednesday morning, with temperatures near or above 40 degrees around the metropolitan area.
We expect temperatures to drop northwest to southeast across the metro area in the afternoon, with a range of 20 north of 465 to mid-30s south of 465. So, then that roads can become slippery in Boone and Hamilton counties with winter mix before 3 p.m., it will take longer for the below-freezing air to impact roads south of Indy until Wednesday evening.
But as of 9 p.m., subfreezing temperatures across the region will put icing on most roads. At that time we expect 8 inches to locally 12 inches of snow far north-northwest of Indianapolis from Kokomo to Lafayette.
Snow and sleet, in addition to freezing rain over southern Indiana, continues overnight through Thursday morning. Snow will be heaviest near/north of I-70 between 4:00 a.m. Thursday and 7:00 p.m. Thursday.
There remains uncertainty about the distance north of an expected band of heavy sleet, but based on the latest data, we are inclined to reduce snow totals by one category south of Indianapolis. We may need to massage the I-70/74 strip over the next 24 hours.
Our highest confidence in the forecast remains north of I-74, where snow will be the dominant precipitation type. Our greatest uncertainty is along I-70/74 (and south) due to the potential for sleet.
Regardless, travel will at times be difficult, if not impossible, Thursday through Friday due to the biting cold air that followed the storm initially.
Stay tuned to WTHR for the latest storm updates and you can always get the latest information from the Live Doppler 13 weather app.
