After a record crushing day on Wednesday, we are in for a cooler but still pleasant Thursday. The temperature reached 76° in Indianapolis Wednesday, beating the old record of 71° for the date. While we will be significantly cooler Thursday, temperatures will still rise above average, which is 46° for this time of year. Temperatures will rise to the low and mid 50s under bright skies this afternoon.

Drenching downpours Friday and gusty winds

A very messy system will arrive to close the work week. A Flash Flood Watch has already been issued for central Indiana and it will be in effect from 1 AM Friday to 1 AM Saturday. Rain totals of 2″-3″ are favorable for much of the area with locally higher amounts possible.

Timing rain

The rain will arrive late this evening with a few spotty showers possible near 10 PM in our southern counties. The rain will quickly lift north through the overnight hours. By the morning commute, expect widespread rain across central Indiana. A couple strong to severe thunderstorms are possible Friday morning, with damaging winds being the primary threat. The more favorable location for these to develop would be south of I-70. During the afternoon, the rain rate will intensify, along with our winds. Non thunderstorm related wind gusts up to 50 mph are possible tomorrow. Drenching downpours will accompany these winds and by the time this system departs in the evening, some locations could be seeing more than 3″ of rainfall.

As colder air mixes in on the backside of this system, areas near I-70 and north could see a transition over to wet snow, but most of this should be melting on contact.

We turn dry and quiet for the weekend. We get another brief warmup Monday as we temperatures climb into the 60s.