The Official IndianaWeatherOnline.com Spring Forecast
With Winter officially coming to an end, Spring will be welcomed with renewed heavy rainfall and thunderstorms. Warmer temperatures will arrive early next week with temperatures climbing above-normal on Sunday and Monday.
The main weather concern early next week will be the possibility of additional heavy rainfall. The first three months of this year have brought Eastern Indiana and Western Ohio over 200% more precipitation than normal, explaining why we are experiencing constant flooding problems. The soil remains 150% saturated and many streams and rivers remain in a flood stage.
Rain will likely begin Sunday Night and will continue into Monday and Tuesday. Rainfall amounts will likely exceed three inches by Tuesday, and the possibility is there for quite a bit more than that. Thunderstorms will also be possible on Monday and Tuesday and with above-normal temperatures and a strengthening weather system, some strong thunderstorms are not out of the question.
Looking ahead to the rest of the Spring weather season, it appears that our weather is going to continue to be influenced by the weather phenomena called La Niña. The term La Niña means that ocean temperatures in the Eastern Pacific off the coast of South America are colder than normal. This affects the weather across the United States in many ways, primarily by causing storms that form to be stronger. Here in the Ohio Valley, we typically experience much wetter Springs when the weather pattern is affected by La Niña, and that will almost definitely be the case this Spring.
With that in mind, flooding and over-saturated soils will continue to plague Eastern Indiana and Western Ohio through at least June.
So while the phrase "April showers bring May flowers" often is true in most Spring weather seasons, this year we will probably have to change that phrase to say "April showers bring more May flooding."
For more weather information, please visit www.IndianaWeatherOnline.com and www.LetsTalkWeather.net and you can hear my daily forecasts on Winchester's WZZY Star 98.3