Cold temperatures are issue number one in this week’s Planting Weather Forecast presented by Beacon Credit Union.
Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin says we’re looking at significantly below normal temperature levels down around freezing across the Hoosier state Saturday morning.
“It’s a chilly start to the weekend here. The good news is we moderate temperatures quickly through Sunday. In that temperature moderation, we will bring in here a little bit of moisture. I don’t think the moisture happens right away on Sunday, but I think as we move through the Monday timeframe, we’ve got hit-and-miss scattered showers that develop in this moderating air mass very, very quickly—a few hundredths to maybe half an inch.”
After the light moisture that starts the week, we see a secondary surge in southern Indiana Tuesday afternoon with potentially strong storms near the Ohio River.
“But the bigger surge of moisture comes Wednesday night into Thursday. A nice round of shower and thunderstorm action with a strong upper low moves through. We’ll have100% coverage, and we can see rain totals across the state a quarter to 1 inch.”
That midweek weather system will start the pattern over again- lather, rinse, repeat.
“Because behind it, bitter cold Canadian air dives southward for overnight next Thursday night through Friday. Now, it doesn’t sit as long. I think we start to moderate temperatures quickly on Saturday, but again, we’re seeing below normal temperatures for Thursday afternoon, Friday, and Friday night before we see another round of moisture coming through and moderating temperatures on Saturday night. That weather system can bring a half an inch or less to about 60% of the Hoosier state.”
Looking ahead to the week of the 11th, rainfall potential isn’t as big, at least in terms of the size of the system.
“But it has pop-up shower and thunderstorm action pretty much all week long. I think we struggle to put more than two days back-to-back together without precipitation during that week. I think we have scattered showers around, but we are definitely warm all the way through.”
Suffice it to say, that swift start to planting season will likely slow down.
