SUMMARY:
Winds will gradually subside through the afternoon, after peaking with a gust of 43 mph at 5:46 this morning. Those winds combined with falling to snow to bring visibilities down for much of the morning rush hours. Prospects for your trip home are (literally) much brighter.
Temps tumbled from 30 at 2am to 10 at 9am. They will stay in the low to mid teens through the afternoon. Those numbers will fall to around zero in Indianapolis by early Wednesday morning. Lafayette, Muncie, and Richmond will all fall below zero.
Snow totals generally ranged from 1.5 to 3 inches, with a few reports of 4 inch totals east and south of Indy. The Indy Airport only measured 1.1 inches, but that’s still enough to put us into the Top 10 seasonal snowfall totals, when measuring Winter as December/January/February. The Indy total for the season is 33.3 inches.
The Indy total for the month is now 24.4 inches. That’s the fifth largest monthly snow total on record, and the biggest since 1996. We are one inch away from having the snowiest month since January 1978, and that could easily happen this weekend. There is also a chance of a dusting of snow Wednesday afternoon and evening, with the best chance coming to the north/northeast of Indy.
10:30am:
More totals:
3.0″ Tipton County
3.0″ Indy East Side
2.5″ Franklin
2.5″ Delaware County
2.2″ Near Lebanon
2.3″ Mccordsville (Hamilton County)
2.2″ near Lebanon
2.0″ Kokomo
2.0″ Boone County
2.0″ Tippecanoe County
9:53am:
3″ Whiteland, in Johnson County
9:50am:
Could be worse department – check out this traffic cam pic from 80/94 right now in the Region, where the Lake Effect is causing whiteout conditions:
9:40am:
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN WIND INFORMATION FOR THE PAST 10 HOURS... LOCATION HIGHEST OB TIME WIND PEAK WIND OR AND OB TIME PEAK OB TIME GUST LAFAYETTE 17 MPH / 654 AM 26 MPH / 654 AM INDIANAPOLIS 31 MPH / 454 AM 43 MPH / 546 AM TERRE HAUTE 28 MPH / 539 AM 37 MPH / 542 AM MUNCIE 25 MPH / 634 AM 37 MPH / 606 AM BLOOMINGTON 25 MPH / 638 AM 37 MPH / 804 AM INDIANAPOLIS EAGLE CREEK 24 MPH / 735 AM 36 MPH / 647 AM
9:10am:
2″ Elletsville
1.5″ Owen County
9:00am:
Snow is ending as expected, but winds are still causing blowing snow to be reported. “WCI” means wind chill index:
CITY SKY/WX TMP DP RH WIND PRES REMARKS LAFAYETTE CLEAR 10 0 63 NE15 30.17R WCI -7 TERRE HAUTE PTCLDY 13 4 67 N17G28 30.15R WCI -4 ANDERSON MOCLDY 9 1 72 N17G35 30.08 WCI -10 COLUMBUS LGT SNOW 12 10 92 N26G35 30.04R VSB 3/4 WCI -8 INDIANAPOLIS LGT SNOW 10 3 73 N21G32 30.09R BLWGSNOWWCI -9 -EAGLE CREEK PTCLDY 9 2 73 N20G29 30.09R WCI -10 KOKOMO *+ PTCLDY 9 1 72 NE14 30.12R WCI -8 MT COMFORT *+ CLOUDY 9 5 85 N24G3 30.07R WCI -12 SHELBYVILLE CLOUDY 13 6 74 N21G31 30.05R WCI -5 ZIONSVILLE + PTCLDY 9 1 69 N16G23 30.10R MUNCIE CLOUDY 7 0 73 N21G29 30.07R WCI -13
8:40am:
More totals:
4″ Seymour
2″ Zionsville
1.7″ Westfield
15.” Bloomington
8:05am:
Bunch of totals just in:
4″ New Castle
3″ Shelbyville
2″ Delaware County
2″ Near Martisnville
2″ Tipton County
2″ Avon
7:45am:
The back edge of the snow continues to slip southeastward. Best chances for higher snow totals is south and southeast of Indy. (Snapshot from My Huge Radar.)
7:38am:
NWS Indianapolis says it’s difficult to measure because of the blowing snow but they came up with 1.1 inches as of 7am.
7:35am:
Here’s our early morning video for @indystar:
7:20am:
Hendricks county now also with a travel advisory:
6:50am:
Morning travel advisories:
6:35am:
As of 6:30 accumulating snow is already moving away from Lafayette and Kokomo, and should be out of the Indy metro area near the end of the morning rush hour.
It’s not just snow. Morning winds have gusted in excess of 40 mph, whipping around the powdery snowfall. Those northerly winds are driving in much colder air. The temperature dropped in Indianapolis from 30 at 2am to the teens by 5am. It will stay in the teens all day, with chills staying near or just below zero. Air temps will drop below zero tonight in the northern half of the state, and down to about zero in Indy.
Final snow totals around Indianapolis, Muncie, and RIchmond should average 2-3 inches, with totals closer to 1-2 inches in Lafayette. Totals in Bloomington and Terre Haute should also be around two inches.
The morning snowfall now puts the Indy seasonal snowfall total into the all-time top 10. And it’s only January 21st.
Lighter snow is likely Wednesday afternoon and evening, with any accumulation staying mainly north of central Indiana. Temps will climb out of the icebox a few days this weekend, but we also have snow chances both those days, immediately followed by another Polar Plunge Monday.
6:20am:
Low visibility continues, with winds gusting to 40 mph!
CITY SKY/WX TMP DP RH WIND PRES REMARKS LAFAYETTE LGT SNOW 12 7 80 MISG 30.08R TERRE HAUTE LGT SNOW 19 13 77 N23G32 29.99R WCI 2 $$ INZ030>032-037>040-046>048-054>057-064-065-211200- CENTRAL INDIANA CITY SKY/WX TMP DP RH WIND PRES REMARKS INDIANAPOLIS LGT SNOW 15 10 80 N25G43 29.94R VSB 3/4 WCI -4 -EAGLE CREEK LGT SNOW 14 9 80 NE18G31 29.96R VSB 1 WCI -3 KOKOMO *+ CLOUDY 12 9 85 NE21G26 30.01R WCI -6 MARION + LGT SNOW 11 5 79 N21G29 30.01R WCI -8 MT COMFORT *+ CLOUDY 14 12 92 N29G36 29.93R WCI -7 SHELBYVILLE LGT SNOW 17 10 74 NE29G38 29.91R VSB 3/4 WCI -2 ZIONSVILLE + LGT SNOW 13 8 78 N21G31 29.98R WCI -5 $$ INZ033-034-041-042-049-050-058-059-211200- EAST CENTRAL INDIANA CITY SKY/WX TMP DP RH WIND PRES REMARKS MUNCIE LGT SNOW 11 7 84 NE22G32 29.96R VSB 3/4 WCI -8
5:30pm:
Visibility still a mile at the Indy Airport, where it’s now down to 18. It was 30 degrees at 1am.
4:50am:
It appears final totals will be 2-3 inches around much of Indy area.
4:00am:
Snow continues, and here comes the cold on cue… Indy still at 24. Lafayette and Muncie down to 15, with chills below zero. Visibility mile or less most places.
3:00am:
An inch reported so far around Lafayette.
2:50am:
When will it end? Pretty quickly this morning around Lafayette, and near the end of morning drive in Indy. Couple of 7-9am sequences follow:
2:30am:
The Advisory has been extended to the north/northeast and to the southwest.
10:00pm Monday:
A Winter Weather Advisory is in place from 1am- 11am for all of Indiana from the Indianapolis “donut” counties to the east and south. This includes Indy, Muncie, Anderson, Carmel, Fishers, Greenwood, Shelbyville, Blomington, Columbus, and Richmond. These areas could see from 2-4 inches of snow by mid-morning Tuesday.
In other locations to the north and west, including Lafayette and Terre Haute, an inch or two is expected.
The most likely hours for accumulating snow are 2am-8am. A fresh batch of Arctic Air will also arrive just before sunrise, dropping temps quickly from the mid 20s around 3am to the mid teens by 9am. That’s where they will stay all day, along with chills below zero all day.
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