On alert for winter weather Thursday-Friday

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - The next few days will be chilly but relatively quiet. However, we are on alert for winter weather Thursday and Friday, including the possibility of single-digit temperatures, sub-zero wind chills and accumulating snow!

Today was sunny but chilly with high temperatures in the mid 30s. We will fall back into the lower 20s overnight under increasing clouds, but the wind is expected to be calm, so wind chill will not be a concern.

Monday will be mostly cloudy with high temperatures in the mid to upper 30s. A stray sprinkle or flurry cannot be ruled out at some point in the day, but we will most likely stay dry.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be partly cloudy and just a few degrees warmer with high temperatures in the lower 40s. The winter solstice is at 3:47 PM CST Wednesday, and winter will hit us like a ton of bricks the next day.

Rain is possible late Wednesday night into Thursday morning as an arctic cold front approaches our region from the northwest. High temperatures will reach the upper 30s to low 40s as warm air flow in from the south during the first half of the day. As that cold front passes through our region, our wind direction will change, and sharply colder air will start blowing in from the northwest. This will send our temperatures tumbling. At some point Thursday afternoon and evening, that rain will change to snow, and snow showers will continue through Thursday night before tapering off Friday morning.

Since this system is still 4 days away, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding any exact snow totals. That some of the precipitation from this system will come as rain while some will come as snow also complicates things because it is hard to know the exact moment that changeover will take place. However, confidence is increasing that we will see 2 to 4″ of snow from this system, and higher snow totals are expected to our north, which could cause problems if you are traveling that way for the holiday weekend.

The snow is only one part of this Alert Day. Bitterly cold air will hang around into Christmas weekend, but it seems the worst of the cold will be Friday. Temperatures will drop into the single digits by early Friday morning and will only reach the low teens that afternoon. Friday will also be windy, which will likely put our wind chill values (feels like temperatures) below zero for most of the day.

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