Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Indianapolis, IN
Issued by NWS Indianapolis, IN
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185 FXUS63 KIND 130428 AFDIND Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Indianapolis IN 1228 AM EDT Mon May 13 2024 .KEY MESSAGES... - Showers and a few thunderstorms expected Monday and Tuesday - Up to around one inch of rain expected - Rain chances return Thursday into Friday && .FORECAST UPDATE... Issued at 1029 PM EDT Sun May 12 2024 The forecast is on track for this evening for Central Indiana. While mainly clear skies are being observed at this hour, expect high level clouds to increase into the overnight hours ahead an approaching trough and associated surface low in Kansas. Clouds will be on the increase and continue to thicken Monday morning; however guidance has continued the trend of slowing down the arrival time of precipitation until around or after the 18-21z timeframe, giving more time for surface heating. Current thoughts are that Monday will be mainly dry for most of Central Indiana, with Western Indiana being the first area to see scattered showers and thunderstorms later afternoon and evening. Very dry conditions in the lowest 3km of the boundary layer likely will limit overall coverage of convective activity, especially if daytime heating leads to deep mixing, further drying out the lower levels. With this in mind, going a little above guidance for highs tomorrow in the upper 70s and lower 80s. Steep low level lapse rates and deeper mixing may also result in gusts of 15-20 mph during the late morning to afternoon hours tomorrow as well. Any convective activity tomorrow evening and into tomorrow night is expected to remain sub-severe due to low instability values and weak shear. && .SHORT TERM (This evening through Monday)... Issued at 216 PM EDT Sun May 12 2024 Rest of This Afternoon... Plentiful sunshine will continue through much of the afternoon with upper ridging across central Indiana. Some high clouds will arrive later, and a few mid clouds will accompany them. Tonight... The upper ridge will slide across the area tonight. An upper level system will move into the Plains by late tonight. Clouds will increase during the night from the system to the west. A few showers may try to sneak into the far western forecast area very late tonight ahead of the system, but lingering dry air along with subsidence from the upper ridge should keep central Indiana dry. Southwest winds and the increasing cloud cover will keep temperatures warmer than Saturday night, with lows in the middle 50s common. Monday... The upper system will continue its approach from the west, but the best forcing and moisture will remain west of the area. Even the limited moisture will take a while to arrive. Still, there will be some isentropic lift moving in, mainly during the afternoon hours. This will be enough to go with mainly chance PoPs, especially late in the day. Moisture might be deep enough for some likely category PoPs in the southwest near the end of the period (after 22Z or so). Rainfall amounts will be light. Temperatures could get near 80 degrees if thicker clouds hold off for long enough. && .LONG TERM (Monday night through Sunday)... Issued at 216 PM EDT Sun May 12 2024 The subtropical jet is modeled to amplify over our region Monday night into Tuesday preceding and eastward-moving shortwave trough. IVT and PWAT anomalies show broad but modest northward moisture surge with this system. Timing of initial richer moisture and warm advection ascent peaking will be Monday early-mid evening. This will be followed by a period of ascent with the main trough/vorticity maxima that will be positioned and paced in such a way that it should force additional precipitation through Tuesday and into Tuesday night. Multi-model ensemble model data has around 0.75-1.00 inch storm total QPF with few members at or above 1.5 and some under 0.50. The upper end seems to be conditional on convective elements which will more than likely be limited given weak midlevel lapse rates. If the dry conveyor belt is optimally positioned over the area and/or the deformation precipitation band under-achieves as it departs, the lower end (i.e., 10-25th percentile) precipitation amounts may be more favored. There may be opportunities in subsequent forecast updates to add more precision for possible dry periods early Tuesday after the initial warm advection precipitation band. On Wednesday, there should be enough of a push of drier continental air to decrease clouds and hold temperatures near mid-May climo. Ridge position and increased warm advection preceding the next system should push us to around +5 temperature anomalies Thursday, with increasing clouds. Thursday through the weekend, the synoptic pattern still features split progressive flow. These are notoriously lower predictability patterns and spaghetti plots do show increasing chaos. Models seem to vary with magnitude of lead wave and initial precipitation Thursday night, and how quickly precipitation departs Saturday. At this time, models indicate a CAPE/shear parameter space that isn`t favorable for organized severe, and a precipitation duration/magnitude signal that isn`t supportive of flooding. This isn`t a pattern that`s effective at dislodging higher latitude continental/colder air, so near or just above climo temperatures are anticipated this weekend. A low amplitude northern stream wave is shown in models with some timing variance possibly bringing some precipitation late Sunday or early Monday. Day 8-14: The subtropical jet is shown to be weaker in medium range model guidance during this period, with more phased and stronger mid- latitude westerlies. There could be one or more organized synoptic- scale systems during this period with attendant precipitation and convective severe potnetial, but details are fuzzy. The pattern indicates perhaps some opportunities for greater day-to-day temperature variances than will be seen this week given the more phased flow, though still probably averaging near or above normal during the period. && .AVIATION (06Z TAF Issuance)... Issued at 1228 AM EDT Mon May 13 2024 Impacts: - Showers and embedded storms arrive late this afternoon into tonight - IFR conditions developing late tonight Discussion: Skies remain mostly clear early this morning as the Ohio Valley continues under the influence of departing high pressure. High clouds are slowly expanding towards the region and that will continue through daybreak. Ceilings will gradually lower during the afternoon with scattered convection expanding into the Wabash Valley late day. S/SW winds are expected through late today peaking at 10- 15kts this afternoon with sporadic higher gusts. Showers will become widespread this evening across central Indiana with the approach of low pressure from the west. Weak elevated instability supports embedded thunder tonight but coverage alone will not warrant introducing a VCTS at the terminals at this time. LOwer ceilings will arrive through the evening...dropping to MVFR and eventually IFR overnight with lower visibilities in rain. && .IND WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...None. && $$ UPDATE...CM SHORT TERM...50 LONG TERM...BRB AVIATION...Ryan