INDIANAPOLIS — Central Indiana enjoyed a beautifully sunny afternoon Thursday with highs near and above 60°.
Speaking of rain, for the first time in over a year, no part of Indiana is experiencing any level of drought conditions. This is a byproduct of what's been a wet start to 2024 and abnormally wet month of April, with many areas in central Indiana 3"-4"+ above average rain for the month.
The rain we'll experience on Friday won't be too heavy, but it will impact outdoor plans, especially in the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. window. Latest hi-res modeling shows an axis of rain (possibly some thunder) reaching the Illinois/Indiana line around 3 p.m.
That line nears Indy around 4 p.m. and moves across the city over the following couple of hours. If that timing doesn't change much over the next 24 hours, plan on wet conditions going into Gainbridge Fieldhouse for Game 3 of the Bucks-Pacers playoff series.
An east-northeasterly movement places the bulk of that rain out of the state by 8 p.m., with only scattered showers and some thunder lingering Friday night into early Saturday.
By Saturday afternoon, within the warm sector, there won't be much to trigger thunderstorms locally, and the focus will be on the building warmth with highs in the 80s. With the focal point for storm initiation much farther west, central Indiana likely gets into the warmest air of the year and warmest air since early October.
