Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Northern Indiana
Issued by NWS Northern Indiana
Versions:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
824 FXUS63 KIWX 240004 AFDIWX Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Northern Indiana 704 PM EST Sat Nov 23 2024 .KEY MESSAGES... - Some patchy light drizzle possible tonight into early Sunday. - Next chance of more widespread rain/drizzle arrives late Sunday night into Monday . - Still a good deal of uncertainty with midweek holiday system Wed-Thu. Some potential of impacts to holiday travel for later Wednesday into Thursday, but confidence is low. - Trend to much below normal temperatures for Tuesday through next weekend. && .DISCUSSION... Issued at 338 PM EST Sat Nov 23 2024 Extensive low clouds have persisted across the area this afternoon. Satellite trends over past few hours have shown more rapidly clearing in eastern Iowa/western Illinois, but not expecting this trend to make it into local area this evening. An upper speed max across the northern Great Lakes will dive southeast across the eastern Great Lakes this evening. Continued backing of low level winds downstream of this feature may induce enough weak low level lift for some patchy drizzle across the north this evening. Otherwise, a fairly uneventful night in store with limited diurnal temperature ranges due to low level warm advection and extensive low cloud coverage. Sunday should feature continued ramp up of low level warm advection, but main item of uncertainty for Sunday centers on sky cover trends. Low level flow should be a bit stronger and more backed southwest on Friday which may allow for better chances in temporarily eroding low clouds. Have maintained forecast consistency in this respect with trend to partly cloudy conditions across the south half/mostly cloudy across the north. While mixed layer heights will remain shallow Sunday, the stronger low level flow and southwest flow component should allow for better mixing in comparison to today with highs from upper 40s far northeast to low-mid 50s far south/southwest. The low level inversion will be hard to erode, and thus always some concern low clouds could persist longer than forecast. For Sunday night, a southwesterly low level jet will nose into the Mid MS Valley eventually veering westerly with stronger low level moisture advection into the local area late Sunday night into early Monday. This moisture return will be shallow in nature and with better mid and upper level moisture support lagging back to the west, this may end up being more of an areas of drizzle/light rain type event into early Monday morning. Mid level trough will build across the region Monday afternoon allowing better low/mid level frontal forcing and deeper better RH profiles to move into the region for continued rain chances. Good shot of cold advection builds in Monday night behind associated cold front, but any lake response should be weak due to shallow lake induced instability. Tuesday should feature dry and much colder conditions as low level baroclinic zone stalls across the area. By Tuesday night into early Wednesday backing low level winds downstream of next upstream disturbance may induce fronto/weak WAA induced light snow given expected pre-existing baroclinic zone. Greater potential may exist just west of local area, but did include some slight chance/low chance PoPs for this period. The main periods of interest this forecast period are still in the Wednesday through Saturday timeframe. 12Z suite of guidance has exhibited some fairly dramatic changes from earlier guidance. The GEM and EC deterministic solutions have both trended to more amplitude with this system, and both ensemble mean representatives of GEM/EC have exhibited a similar trend. Given these trends, have upped blended PoPs for the Wednesday into Thursday period. GFS/GEFS remain more northern stream dominant with a sharper north-south cutoff in precip shield. Have maintained high chance PoPs for this period given this is a recent trend in guidance, bu this certainly will be a system worth watching heading into a busy holiday travel time Wednesday-Thursday. Amplified western CONUS ridge will provide ideal low level trajectories for a potential significant shot of cold air late week into next weekend, with continued good agreement in medium range deterministic/ensemble solutions. This large scale pattern would eventually lead to at least increased lake effect snow potential heading into next weekend. && .AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z MONDAY/... Issued at 655 PM EST Sat Nov 23 2024 Predominantly MVFR to IFR conditions at the terminals, with improvement expected tomorrow afternoon. We`ll see increased warm air/moisture advection through the overnight and tomorrow, with the inversion tonight-early Sun AM possibly trapping in those lower ceilings. At the moment, KFWA is at 800 ft and KSBN has 1500 feet. Confidence is lower in regards to if/how long IFR conditions develop. Guidance is conflicted on even the overall trend, with some suggesting gradual improvement overnight, and others suggesting IFR will dominate the period with possible LIFR conditions. It seems the more pessimistic model is on the right track, particularly at KFWA, but stayed middle of the road as far as ceiling heights go, with KSBN staying low-end MVFR and KFWA IFR until around 4z before potential improvement begins. && .IWX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... IN...None. OH...None. MI...None. MARINE...None. && $$ DISCUSSION...Marsili AVIATION...MCD