EVANSVILLE – The Tri-State could see everything from tornadoes to an inch of snow over the next few days as a strong, strange weather system prepares to sweep through the area.
The National Weather Service has placed Evansville and most of Southwestern Indiana and Western Kentucky in an “enhanced” risk area for severe weather on Sunday: the third-highest designation on a five-level scale.
Evansville stands a 45-59% chance of severe wind. That includes wind gusts as strong as 70 to 75 miles per hour and the possibility of “quick, spin-up tornadoes,” NWS said.
The system will also bring dramatic fluctuations in temperatures. Between Sunday and Monday, Evansville could see highs in the mid-70s and lows in the mid-teens.
The severe weather threat
According to the NWS’ Friday bulletins, the chances for severe weather are climbing for Sunday evening. The Evansville area faces an increasing “risk of widespread damaging winds of 60 to 70 mph,” NWS wrote.
“Quick-spin up tornadoes are possible along the line of storms as they progress from west to east,” the bulletin reads. “Instability does not look impressive, but there is a lot of wind available with the system!”
An update Friday afternoon had the storms arriving in Evansville some time between 10 p.m. Sunday and midnight.
The snow
Whenever they get here, however, they’ll ride the back of a massive cold front that will shove temperatures off a cliff.
The high on Sunday could hit 73 degrees, the NWS forecast shows. But the low that evening is expected to plummet to 30 degrees. It shouldn’t move much from there Monday, with a high in the lower 30s and a low of 17.
That dramatic shift, coupled with all the moisture in the air, could generate as much as an inch of snow, Friday’s bulletin says, mostly on grassy and elevated surfaces. The ground will likely be too warm for the snow to cover the roads.
Cold temperatures will continue into Tuesday, when the wind chill could dip as low as 6 degrees.
Evansville weather radar
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Tornado, snow, hot, cold: Tri-State could see it all in next few days
Reporting by Jon Webb, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
