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Live Doppler 13 Weather Blog: Warm night becomes stormy

Unseasonably mild, moist air fuels downpours and gusty storms with the potential of some severe wind gusts before 4 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS — It's quite the balmy December night in central Indiana.  As expected, temperatures are as warm as they've been all day with readings hovering near 60°. That's a good 15° average for early December and it's happening five hours after sunset.

That's due to a strengthening southerly-southwesterly wind that will gust over 35-40 mph at times tonight into Monday, even outside of thunderstorms. Speaking of the latter, Live Doppler 13 Radar is becoming more active right on schedule as the influence of increasing atmospheric lift from an approaching cold front and jet stream dynamics is being felt.

Credit: WTHR

Expect to hear an increase both in downpours of rain and rumbles of thunder between now and 4 a.m., the timing of departure for most of the rainfall in the WTHR viewing area.

While the greater ingredients for severe wind/rotating storms align near/south of the Ohio River, the latest local analysis suggests that areas near and especially south of I-70 could have some severe thunderstorm gusts (58+ mph) or embedded rotation within storm clusters.  

Credit: WTHR

Remain Weather Aware overnight in that zone with the potential of few warnings until the cold front can push the storm axis out of the state by sunrise Monday morning.

You'll have a rude awakening as you head out the door Monday from a stinging west-northwest wind making it "feel" 40°-45° colder than right now as wind chills plummet into the teens/lower 20s.  

Credit: WTHR

This is part of a continued rollercoaster temperature ride that delivers our coldest highs in over 9 months this Tuesday (with light snow likely Tuesday into Wednesday morning) only to be followed by another surge into the upper 50s Friday into Saturday.

The trade-off with the late-week warm-up will be another round of rain and possibly thunderstorms too. Buckle up!

Credit: WTHR

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