Indiana Faces Single-Digit Temps Thursday Night
INDIANAPOLIS — Much of Indiana will see another push of bitterly cold air Thursday and into Friday, with temperatures dropping into the single digits for many areas, according to the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.
“Today we’re expecting temperatures mainly in the mid-20s, colder as you go north,” meteorologist Mike Ryan said. “Some spots toward Lafayette and Kokomo may actually stay in the low 20s.”
Ryan said sunshine will make a brief return but won’t help much. “I guess if there is a small silver lining, the sun will be out today — we haven’t seen it in a while — but that’s not really going to have any sort of substantial impact on influencing the temperature,” he said.
The coldest stretch arrives tonight.
“We’re really going to notice the cold air in particular tonight with clear skies, light wind, and the snow on the ground over most of the area,” Ryan said. “We are expecting temperatures to fall down into the single digits, particularly along the I-70 corridor and points north. Farther south, temperatures will be a touch warmer in the lower to mid-teens.”
Areas near Lafayette and Kokomo could fall near zero, he said, with wind chills “most likely into the low negative digits, somewhere between zero and 5 below at times overnight into Friday morning.”
Ryan said the region has fully shifted into a winter pattern.
“When you think about it, we had the shift to colder weather during the week of Thanksgiving, then the winter storm that affected the northern half of the state over the weekend, and of course the snowfall Monday night that put a lot of the area at 3 to 5 inches,” he said. “So yeah, we’ve kind of flipped the gear, and now we’re dealing with temperatures that are colder than normal.”
Although cold, he said the pattern is not unusual for early December. “Our average high is still in the lower to mid-40s, so we’re running colder than that,” Ryan said. “We’re expected to remain below those levels over the next four to five days, maybe even a little longer.”
Another system may bring light rain or snow Sunday, though Ryan said amounts appear small.
“The system is trending a little further south,” he said. “We’re not expecting anything significant. It’s probably going to be fairly light, whatever falls on Sunday, and right now we’re not anticipating any sort of significant impact.”
