Blizzard — Warren, Indiana

2016-02-24 to 2016-02-25 · Warren, Indiana

Event narrative

Nearby ASOSs, in counties to the east and west, depicted a few observations within at least a three hour period in the late morning and early afternoon that had visibilities at or below a quarter mile and wind gusts at or over 35 mph. All of this occurred with snowfall of 4 to over 7 inches across the county. No other impacts were reported.

Wider weather episode

A strong area of low pressure, one that was responsible for a severe weather outbreak on February 23rd across parts of the Gulf Coast area, moved through the Ohio Valley on February 24th. This storm brought blizzard conditions to parts of northwest sections of central Indiana. Southeastern areas saw mainly rain with this event. Conditions changed rapidly in short distances across the northwest half of the area.

Strong forcing with this system brought moderate rain to parts of the area early in the morning of the 24th. The low brought gusty winds, with peak winds during the day of around 40 mph.

Cold air wrapped into northwest sections of central Indiana during the morning, changing the rain to snow. Strong forcing remained in place across northwest sections of the area during the day, keeping the snow across the same areas. This led to the higher snow amounts. Warmer air just to the southeast kept the precipitation as rain until mid afternoon, leading to lower snow amounts. The difference in temperatures between the snow and rain areas was just a few degrees.

Snow amounts ranged from a trace across eastern and southern sections of the area to around 6 inches across the extreme northwest portions. A tight gradient in snowfall amounts was seen in the northwest, where a band of heavy snow set up and lingered.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 622015. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.