No change in today’s outlook. We will be sunny, mild and dry! However, we are having to make a few changes for tomorrow. The wave that we were hoping would stay south into KY is pushing farther north. This will allow for rains of .25”-.5” to spread up to near the I-70 corridor. Clouds tomorrow make it all the way up into northern Indiana, we can’t rule out a few spits and sprinkles in north central and northeast Indiana. So, while we were hoping for another dry day tomorrow, it looks like we will not see that in many places.
Our next strong, well organized system still is not arriving until Thursday. Low pressure tracks from central IL through NE Indiana and into Michigan for Thursday and brings rain totals of .25”-.75” to 80% of the state during the day. We still think there is a strong likelihood that the precipitation ends as snow over northern Indiana as cold air races in behind. Right now we will open the door up to some 1”-4” snow totals over the far northern quarter of the state, and there may be some better totals in there. We will allow for sloppy wet snow all the way down to the US 24 corridor, but the best accumulations will be north. In fact, southern Lower Michigan could get pounded…depending on timing. Snow is done by sunrise Friday, or around there. Winds continue to look nasty Thursday night and Friday and have the potential to make this a very dramatic event. We can see winds up to 20-40 mph, which would make any snow up north an absolute pain to deal with. These snow totals and this snow potential is just a working process right now…we will hone in on a more specific forecast tomorrow morning.
No change for the rest of the forecast. We go back to drier weather for Friday through next Monday morning. High pressure will slowly work through the state Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning. Cold air holds over the region to finish the week and start the weekend, only moderating once we get south flow on the backside of that high.
A cold front brings rain back for Monday afternoon through the first part of Tuesday, the 5th into the 6th. Rains do not look as impressive this morning, and will mostly be from .25”-.5” with coverage at 60% of the state. Colder air follows on the backside.
The extended period has us mostly devoid of new precipitation to start, through the 9th. Then we have 2 significant waves moving across the eastern Corn Belt from the 10th through the 12th. Combined, these waves can bring half to 1.5” rain totals, and likely will deliver below normal temps around mid-month. Still, the pattern does not look nearly as active as what we just got done with this past week…so we should be seeing improvement in our drainage conditions through the next couple of weeks.
The Official "weatherstud" Forecast Center 