As the clouds move out of the area Friday it will be a quiet afternoon. Sunshine will help to warm temperatures up to near 40 by afternoon. This calm will not last long as we will see two waves of low pressure this weekend drastically change our weather pattern for the weekend.

Wave one comes in Saturday morning, you can see the snow on our Microcast (Futurecast) model early Saturday. We could see a quick snowfall accumulation on Saturday morning of 1 to 2 inches. Skies will clear by the middle of the day, but with the big change in pressure we will see very gusty west to southwest winds up to 40 mph during the afternoon.

The second wave of low pressure comes in Sunday. This will result in some snow showers, especially early with the big change by afternoon which is colder temperatures. Highs will not exit the 20s during the afternoon. The arctic air mass will move out quickly and by early next week we will see a more mild pacific flow with temperatures back into the 40s.

Look for more scattered showers tonight and areas of fog and drizzle.  Look for the rain to change over to snow by daybreak Friday as colder air moves into the area.  Expect about a dusting to an inch of snow with this first round of snow.

Friday afternoon brings us dry weather and some sunshine.  Enjoy it while you can because the wind looks cloudy and colder.

Another round of snow moves in for Saturday morning, bringing us another fast one to two inches of snow.  Highs on Saturday are in the lower 30s and only the mid 20s for Sunday.  Sunday will bring us a few more flurries with breezy conditions.

Today is the anniversary of the 1978 Blizzard, which is the worst blizzard in Hoosier History.  The local National Weather Service located out of North Webster has a great web article on this record setting event.  During that time, Allen county saw about a foot of snow and Lagrange saw about two feet of snow.

Freezing rain has made a mess out of things across Allen County and it will be a slow moderation in temperatures to get to all rain later Thursday morning. By the mid morning hours we should begin to see all rain as temperatures should rise to above freezing levels.

By late morning it looks like some light rain showers. It should be quiet through the late afternoon and evening with some light rain turning to all snow by early Friday morning.

How about those mixed showers Wednesday evening?  We saw everything from snow, sleet, rain and freezing rain across the area with some snow and sleet accumulating south of Highway 24.  Look for a break in the action during the overnight hours, but by daybreak look for another round of mixed precipitation to clip the Fort Wayne area.

A Winter Weather Advisory continues until 7AM Thursday for the counties highlighted in tan in the first graphic.

With temperatures near freezing Thursday morning, look for slick conditions across the area.  But, as the precipitation moves out for the afternoon, look for temperatures to rebound back to the upper 30s and the lower 40s.

We are still on track for a cold weekend with highs in lower 30s for Saturday and the mid to lower 20s for Sunday.  Look for a few snow showers early Saturday and a low chance of flurries for Sunday.

Great video of the Northern Lights near the Arctic Circle

Even though we didn’t get to see the northern lights, they had a spectacular show around the Arctic Circle. This is worth a look!

It will be a fairly quiet pattern for Wednesday with sunshine to begin the day and clouds coming in by early afternoon. A weather system to our south will bring in some showers, mostly south through the evening and overnight hours. This weather system will really not cause much of disruption in temperatures as highs will actually be warmer Thursday with highs in the 40s. We could also see some light rain Thursday, but once again most of the activity will be south of our area.

The next big change will come this weekend when arctic air arrives. The good news with the cold air is that it will only stay over the weekend and it will be moderated quickly by early next week.

If you have been paying attention to the news lately, you heard that the sun had a strong solar flare the other day and that flare hit the Earth Tuesday morning. Here is the latest information from spaceweather.com.

This solar activity will likely trigger Northern Lights activity tonight, now if we can only get our clouds to clear out.  One of the values astronomers use to determine Northern Light activity is the Kp-Index.  All you need to know about this index is that when it climbs above a 3 or 4 (yellow or red) the Northern Lights are very possible.  So, let’s hope for some clearing tonight.

Look for temperatures in the lower 20s for Wednesday morning and back into the upper 30s  for highs Wednesday afternoon under a mostly cloudy sky.

Those clouds are connnected to our next rain maker that moves in for Thursday.  Expect scattered light rain showers early Thursday then a partly sunny sky in the afternoon with highs in the lower 40s.

Enjoy the 40s while you can as the weekend looks much colder with highs in the 30s for Saturday and only the 20s for Sunday.

Today will be our transition back to winter as temperatures won’t budge out of the 30s this afternoon. We will see more clouds than sun with gusty west winds up to 20 mph.

Another weather system races toward our area Wednesday afternoon as we see clouds thicken. There is a slight chance of showers late Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning, especially south of Fort Wayne. These chances increase by Thursday afternoon as temperatures should be warm enough for an all rain event.

We should see some partial clearing Tuesday night just in time for you to possibly see the northern lights. I’ve included a link to the latest space forecast here.

Monday morning was the second time this January we had thunderstorms in the area.  When it comes to those thunderstorms, we got off easy.  In the last 24 hours, there were numerous tornadoes across the deep South.

But, our snow cover did not survive the mild conditions and the rain.   The 6 inches of snow cover we had Saturday morning has pretty much melted away.  If you add up all the snow from this 2011-2012 season, we have had 24 inches in Fort Wayne.  That is 75% of our average annual snowfall in Fort Wayne, but that does not mean we are 75% done with our winter.

Enjoy fairly quiet weather the next few days with highs in the 30s for Tuesday and Wednesday with the lower 40s returning for Thursday.  Get out and enjoy it while you can because high temperatures will be back down in the 20s by this Sunday.

What a weird start to the week. After bitterly cold temperatures over the weekend we are getting another dose of spring. For you winter fans, don’t worry your favorite season is returning with gusto Monday afternoon. Temperatures will sharply drop and the light rain will change to light snow. Don’t expect much accumulation but do expect sharply colder temperatures as highs will fall into the 30s for much of the rest of the work week.

Because of the gusty winds we do have a wind advisory for the area through late Monday afternoon. The winds will begin to calm but we could still some flooding problems across the area.