It’s a dry start to Thursday morning. However, take the rain gear as you’re heading out, rain and storms will arrive later in the day. A cold front positioned to our northwest Thursday morning will slide southeast. Ahead of the front, a line of showers and storms will be moving through Indiana during the afternoon hours.

We should see these showers entering our northwestern counties near noon and then exiting our southeastern counties near 5 p.m. The first line will be pre-frontal. A second line of storms is expected to develop along the cold front during the evening hours. Some of these storms could be on the stronger side with gusty winds being the primary threat.

I wouldn’t rule out some of these storms containing hail. There is a very low probability that these storms will reach “severe” criteria, but a couple of them reaching these limits can’t be ruled out.

Behind the cold front, skies will clear again and we’ll send temperatures down to very cool levels by early Friday morning, in the mid to upper 50s. We’ll have a sunny day Friday with temperatures at comfortable levels, in the upper 70s. However, more wildfire smoke is projected to move overhead, leading to hazy skies.

It will be a complete pattern shift as we go through the weekend. A hot pressure “hot dome” has been anchored to the southwestern side of the states. This will expand across the region and into the east coast late in the weekend into next week.

Temperatures in the 90s are expected to return and this could lead to the first official heat wave of the season. We refer to conditions as a “heat wave” when we have three consecutive days in the 90s. While we’ve been close this summer, it hasn’t happened yet. That chance looks favorable next week.