Burning the Midnight Oil to Stay Warm As Indiana Receives First Inch of Snow!

Well of course I am awake because Springville in La Porte County Indiana has just reported its first inch of snow of the season. Were any of the models showing this? No, but remember they are only guides and we knew tonight on the newscasts we would have another nice lake plume developing with possible light accumulations on the grassy surfaces in far northern Indiana. So like I should have done Friday night in the wee hours of the morning I threw out the models and went with latest satellite, radar, temperature, and pressure trends. You cannot go wrong by going back to the basics. The human element always wins out in my book. Every once in awhile you get a nice reminder. Tonight I stuck by my forecast, literally, and sure enough down came the sticking snow in La Porte County! The news was not all good with the first vehicle slide-off of the season also reported. Here in Lafayette there was also plenty of excitement. While we did not have any snow accumulations, for the second night in a row we had reports of snow flurries. This time I had my camera ready and snapped some of Lafayette's first snowflakes of the season above. This is a picture from just after 8 p.m. on Monday right after I walked the dog. This is also verification of Justin's report that came in at about the same time. My dog B.J. wasted no time and taking care of business in record time and I did a marathon sprint into the house to find a camera. My family has never seen me move so fast! But there is the proof above. I knew all the running I do would come in handy someday. Here are more reports of snow that came in just after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning on radar.

Areas from Delphi to Logansport and Winamac and stretching over to Kokomo tonight are getting in on some of the flurry fun. We also had some interesting e-mails of sleet being reported. Check it out.

In Tipton, we have had a nice period of sleet....light sleet, but it lasted 25 minutes....accumulated, very briefly for about 10 minutes on the streets and sidewalks....we heard it on the roof!!!

We didn't see any snowflakes....but that will come soon enough.

I am curious about the winter ahead....I am interested in the lack of solar activity....what will that bring?!? If anything???? I am ready for a winter UNLIKE the last one...more like 2006-07!!!!

Chris


Thanks for the great report Chris. Today I am heading to the Indianapolis National Weather Service Winter Workshop which is coordinated with all the television stations in Indianapolis along with emergency management. I will make sure to ask about the solar activity on the sun and if it is possible it could impact our winter this year. I remember a few years ago a very active sun was one of the reasons I truly believe we went from a forecast of a snowy winter to a snowless one. This year things are favoring more snow due to a lack of sunspots. It should be interesting! I know Upstate New York is thinking it will be a snowy winter as they are being buried under 6 to 12 inches of snow over the next 36 hours. Check out our snowcast below.

Is it a sign of what we can expect this winter? I will have more answers for you tomorrow here on the blog with a re-cap of the winter conference. Today though keep out the layers and make sure the kids have hats and gloves at the bus stop with wind chills near 20! Halloween still looks like a treat with dry weather and 60s on the way so keep those warm thoughts. Have a great day.