Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Indianapolis, IN

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817 FXUS63 KIND 230357 AFDIND Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Indianapolis IN 1157 PM EDT Sun Sep 22 2024 .KEY MESSAGES...
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- Additional rain likely late Monday into Tuesday - Seasonable temperatures for much of the week with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s
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&& .FORECAST UPDATE... Issued at 1030 PM EDT Sun Sep 22 2024 No major updates needed to the forecast as of 10pm. A brief and weak tornado formed earlier west of Muncie, which was associated with a shallow convective shower (there was no lightning detected). This shower was located along a subtle boundary, and the low-level environment was conducive for the brief spin up (0-1km shear near 20kt, steep surface lapse rates, and very low LCLs). Additional weak spin-ups are not expected tonight, as convection along the boundary is diminishing and the low-levels are stabilizing. Any remaining showers may produce very heavy downpours and perhaps a flash or two of lightning. && .SHORT TERM (This evening through Monday)... Issued at 230 PM EDT Sun Sep 22 2024 It has been a while since we have experienced the afternoon we have ongoing across central Indiana. Damp...cloudy and muggy with numerous showers continue to press east across the forecast area. 18Z temperatures were primarily in the low and mid 70s. Rainfall amounts have been light so far but welcomed with the ongoing drought conditions across the Ohio Valley. While the initial batch of showers has already shifted into the eastern half of the forecast area...additional chances for rain will come late today into the evening as a cold front sags south through the area. The overall pattern will remain unsettled to begin the work week as the front stalls near the Ohio River then lifts back north into the area by Monday night. Rest of This Afternoon and This Evening Showers now focused over eastern counties will continue to push east and should be largely out of the forecast area within the next couple hours. Additional pockets of light showers persist further west...but am more focused on whether any convective development can organize ahead of the approaching cold front to the northwest. CAMs continue to hint at showers and a few embedded rumbles of thunder developing by late afternoon across the northern Wabash Valley then tracking southeast across most of the forecast area into the evening. Instability should be held in check with little to no diurnal heating anticipated for the rest of the afternoon with a thick cloud shield in place. This will however provide another opportunity to receive some much needed rain. Tonight and Monday The frontal boundary will drift south to near the Ohio River before stalling early Monday. Most of the rain should be out of the forecast area by late evening with the bulk of the overnight remaining dry. The focus will instead turn to lower clouds and perhaps some fog as moisture within the boundary layer becomes trapped beneath a strengthening inversion. A broad axis of low stratus exists currently in the post-frontal environment and expect this to settle across the forecast area from northwest to southeast later this evening through the overnight. Lower clouds will be slow to lift on Monday and will likely not mix out at all as the inversion holds serve for much of the day. The placement of the front to our south in tandem with subtle ridging aloft will keep showers isolated to scattered at best and focused primarily over southern counties into the afternoon. Will start to see an uptick in rainfall coverage by Monday evening as the boundary lifts back north into the southern forecast area and a surface wave riding along it approaches from the southwest. Temps...Lows will fall into the low and mid 60s tonight. The extensive cloud cover Monday combined with light northerly flow will actually keep temperatures slightly below average for late September. Expect highs to top out in the low to mid 70s. && .LONG TERM (Monday night through Sunday)... Issued at 230 PM EDT Sun Sep 22 2024 Monday Night Through Thursday. The next batch of precipitation is expected to move through Monday night into Tuesday as a shortwave moves northeastward ahead of the stronger upper level low which will be moving southward Tuesday. Models are coming into better agreement in where the heavier axis of precipitation looks to set up which doesn`t look favorable for much of central Indiana with the LLJ enhanced precipitation likely closer to the Ohio River into northern Kentucky while the TROWAL axis ends up to the northwest of the forecast area. Do think that most spots see at least a quarter inch, but the chances for more than an inch look isolated at best. Focus then shifts to the low potential for more appreciable rainfall towards the end of the work week with models showing there may be a seasonably strong closed low to the west of Indiana and a tropical system moving northward. Models tend to struggle to resolve these strong interacting systems with ensembles showing a wide range of outcomes with many being unreasonable in how they track both the northern and southern systems. Over the last day the general trend has been to push the northern system through faster which will limit the ability to tap into the tropical moisture which liens up with the probabilistic output showing the potential for at least an inch about 20-25 percent lower than how it looked this time yesterday. At this time, dry weather looks to be the most likely outcome through Thursday but rain may move in Friday into the weekend. Temperatures will remain seasonable with highs in the mid to upper 70s. Friday Through Sunday. As mentioned above, forecast confidence into the weekend is very low, but current thoughts are that with the low pressure diving further south that the chances for precipitation across much of Indiana looks fairly low. Strong pressure gradients associated with the tropical remnants will create gusty gradient winds of 15-25 mph Friday through Saturday. Will continue to track model trends but without another larger shift, the earlier potential for 2+ inches of rain looks much lower than earlier models showed. Looking beyond into the following work week, the pattern continues to remain active but quite uncertain as to whether there this active weather will impact central Indiana. && .AVIATION (06Z TAF Issuance)...
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Issued at 1157 PM EDT Sun Sep 22 2024 Impacts: - IFR and possibly worse ceilings will be developing after 09z - Showers will be moving into the KHUF and KBMG vicinity after 21z and KIND and KLAF after 00z Tuesday Discussion: A front will stall near the Ohio River. Moist boundary layer and light winds will bring IFR flying conditions to the terminals overnight into this morning, with ceilings being the main issue. This afternoon and evening, flying conditions will improve somewhat as a surface wave lifts northeast along the front. This will bring in an area of showers from southwest to northeast late this afternoon and tonight. Winds will be light northwest and then north.
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&& .IND WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && $$ UPDATE...Eckhoff SHORT TERM...Ryan LONG TERM...White AVIATION...MK