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How drivers can prepare for bad winter weather<\/p>\n
This video offers tips from the Indianapolis Department of Transportation to help drivers navigate bad winter weather conditions.<\/p>\n
Hoosiers should brace for a dramatic cool down by the end of November as signs suggest much colder weather could be on the way.<\/p>\n
There’s a chance that a “sudden stratospheric warming” event may occur, which would weaken a low-pressure area in the Arctic known as a polar vortex, said Cody Moore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis. That could push cold air south and set Hoosiers’ teeth chattering.<\/p>\n
“You hear big words like polar vortex, and it sounds like something crazy but it\u2019s really not, we\u2019re just using super scientific terms explains what normally goes on,” Moore said.<\/p>\n
While the events leading up to the cold snap might be normal, the timing and severity of the snap could be a bit abnormal. Typically such cold snaps fall later in the winter for Indiana and temperatures tend not to dip quite as low in late November, Moore said.<\/p>\n
Longer term predictions for Indiana’s winter suggest the area may see a little more precipitation than an average year thanks to a weak La Ni\u00f1a<\/a>, a phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean that affects weather in the United States. Still, that could change by the time spring arrives.<\/p>\n The NWS\u2019s Climate Prediction Center<\/a> issued a news release Nov. 13 saying that while La Ni\u00f1a is predicted to continue through January, the event is expected to remain weak and could end sooner than predicted.<\/p>\n La Ni\u00f1a comes to Indiana<\/p>\n Casey Crosbie, a meteorologist with NWS Indianapolis<\/a>, said these are all just probabilities, and nothing is absolute. A La Ni\u00f1a event essentially means that we could see certain weather patterns, such as increased precipitation.<\/p>\n These patterns could wind up benefitting Indiana since the state is in a drought, Crosbie said.<\/p>\n What is La Ni\u00f1a?<\/p>\n La Ni\u00f1a begins at the central Pacific Ocean\u2019s surface. When the ocean’s temperatures cool (which usually happens every three to five years) that affects tropical rainfall, which in turn affects weather patterns around the world, according to the NWS.<\/p>\n What tends to happen then, Crosbie explained, is that the wave-like jet stream above North America shifts farther north into parts of western Canada. This causes the downstream storm track to curve down into the Great Lakes region.<\/p>\n How does La Ni\u00f1a affect Indiana?<\/p>\n As the storm track drops down to Indiana, precipitation and snowfall rates can increase<\/a>.<\/p>\n Climatology records looking back at Indiana\u2019s weather show that during a La Ni\u00f1a event, Indiana typically sees wetter winters, Crosbie said, but it\u2019s tougher to predict the impact for temperatures.<\/p>\n Right now, the NWS is predicting \u201cequal chances\u201d of average temperature outlooks for winter. This means that over the three-month winter period, Indiana could see some cold snaps along with potential warming, a combination that means the \u201925-26 winter temperatures will average out.<\/p>\n Indianapolis\u2019 current forecast<\/p>\n As the weak La Ni\u00f1a sets Hoosiers up for a wet winter, the end of November will also see some rain.<\/p>\n The NWS is predicting rain for the week of Nov. 17 with high temperatures barely reaching 60 by Thursday.<\/p>\n The greatest chance of rain for Central Indiana will come by the end of the week.<\/p>\n IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.<\/p>\n Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment\u00a0reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com.\u00a0Follow him on BlueSky\u00a0@karlstartswithk.bsky.social<\/a>\u00a0or X\u00a0@karlstartswithk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How drivers can prepare for bad winter weather This video offers tips from the Indianapolis Department of Transportation…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":386221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,1074,1089,1075,1412,2862,20579,2961,125688,425,728,1077,224,5337,1571,6231,451,942,50,125686,450,457,950,1076,6228,1078,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-386220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-exclude","11":"tag-exclude-from-paywall-logic-testing","12":"tag-from","13":"tag-in","14":"tag-indiana","15":"tag-indianapolis","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-nina-weather","18":"tag-local","19":"tag-local-news","20":"tag-logic","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-national","24":"tag-national-weather-service","25":"tag-negative","26":"tag-neutral","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-nina","29":"tag-overall","30":"tag-overall-negative","31":"tag-overall-neutral","32":"tag-paywall","33":"tag-service","34":"tag-testing","35":"tag-weather"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115567508497732923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/KIND_loop.gif\"\/)
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