STATEWIDE — A winter storm is coming to Indiana, and most of the state will be under a winter storm warning starting Thursday afternoon.
The National Weather Service has updated their winter storm watch to a warning. While most of northern to central Indiana will be under a winter storm warning, some counties up north by Lake Michigan are under a blizzard warning.
“We just issued winter storm warnings – upgrades from watches – covering all of central Indiana and then we have a southern warning…Both warnings will be starting Thursday afternoon,” said Michael Koch at the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.
While he says the warning for southern Indiana could be gone by Friday afternoon, the rest of the state needs to be prepared for dangerous conditions.
Thursday will start with light rains and 2-6 inches of snow from central Indiana on north, but the afternoon will bring flash freezing and strong winds.
“We could see wind gusts above 50 miles an hour,” said Koch, “that’s going to make any snow that we have blow and cause visibilities near zero at times. So basically blizzard-like conditions at times.”
Central Indiana will see the strongest wind gusts, which will combine with arctic air on Friday to bring temperatures down below zero until Sunday. Koch warns those high winds could also cause the possibility of power outages on Friday.
“Make sure your home is winter ready. Make sure you have supplies ahead of time. And have a plan in case you lose power, because that could be a big concern, losing power, especially as temperatures as cold as they’re going to be,” Koch said.
