2-5-18 Northern INDOT Update: Latest details on accumulating snow this evening into tonight. K.

Video (5:00): 

Good Monday afternoon. 

Accumulating snow is still on track for this evening and into the overnight hours. The leading edge of light snow looks to enter western portions of the La Porte District as early as 3PM EST. Initially a narrow band will enter northwestern portions of the state, with a more expansive swath of accumulating beginning during the evening hours of 6-9 PM. Here’s a look at the latest simulated radar: 

Temperatures will be quite cold throughout much of this event. This will lead to high snow to liquid ratios and allow fluffy snow to accumulate quickly especially in the northern third of the state.

We wouldn’t rule out snow rates around a half an inch an hour for about 8 hours given these temperatures and current observations. Overall, not much change from our initial snowfall map. We still think the majority of La Porte district sees 3-5″ of snow where the longest duration of snow will occur. This system will weaken as it moves off to the east so amounts do decrease a bit from west to east across the state. We expect the heaviest snow to fall between 6PM and 3AM tonight, but we expect to see residual snow showers and flurries into tomorrow morning with some light lake effect snow showers in La Porte and St. Joseph counties.

Please be aware that any roads that are left untreated will likely become slick as this will be a fine, fluffy snow rather than wet snow. We will dry out a bit later in the day on Tuesday, but the next system will quickly develop to our west which will bring additional snow accumulations to the northern third of the state beginning late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. Given the timing, we will likely see impacts for Wednesday’s morning rush. Current guidance does suggest a band of moderate to heavy snow for the Northern INDOT districts overnight Tuesday.

Be sure to watch the video for more details and if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask. We will have more updates the next 24 hours to fine tune our forecasts for these snow events. Hope you have a great Monday!