Major Winter Storm Heading Towards Indiana/Ohio
It appears a major winter storm will impact the Northern half of Indiana and Ohio late Monday Night and into the day on Tuesday and even early Wednesday. A low pressure system will move into far Northern Kentucky and then into East Central Ohio by Tuesday Night. As the system moves East it will also strengthen and get wound up adding extremely strong winds to the mix with this storm.
It still appears that light rain will begin to fall late tomorrow night and into the early morning hours on Tuesday. The main winter event will get going during the day on Tuesday as heavy snow begins to fall, especially North of Interstate 70. Snowfall rates could exceed an inch per hour and with the latest models indicating some elevated instability, some convective elements will be possible with the snowfall, which means that thundersnow would be a possibility. Any areas that receive thundersnow, could easily see 2 or 3 inches of snow within an hour.
As the day wears on Tuesday, the freezing line will progess Southeast and it appears that areas South of Interstate 70 could change to some light to moderate snow.
A deformation zone/trowal develops by Tuesday Afternoon over Central and Northern Indiana and this would bring heavy snow back to the area.
As winds increase throughout the day, travel conditions will become very hazardous as blowing and drifting becomes a major issue. With the possibility of winds gusting up to 45 mph, blizzard conditions are definitely possible across the Northern half of Indiana and Ohio.
Snowfall accumulations could easily climb to well over 6 inches of snow for many areas with isolated areas in Northern Indiana seeing up to or over a foot of snow.
I will send out an update early Monday Morning with updated snowfall accumulation forecasts, so stay tuned!