A band of light snow moved across the Northeast Indiana/Fort Wayne region during the mid afternoon hours on New Years Eve (12/31/2023). Accumulations in Fort Wayne were generally at or below a half inch, and peak rates, again around 0.5 inch per hour, were fairly brief. This non-heavy snow event occurred as a plume of ascent rotated around a nearly vertically stacked low centered over southern Lower Michigan. The air mass was nearly saturated from the surface through the dendritic growth zone (DGZ) across NERN Indiana north into SRN Michigan, and surface wet bulb zero values were at or below freezing. Nevertheless, upward vertical motion, particularly through the DGZ, was weak at all scales, including synoptically, as well as at the meso. Furthermore, no mechanism was present to reduce stability. Thus, another entertaining one to two hour period of light snow was observed, but snowfall rates were well short of impactful levels.
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Base reflectivity during peak snowfall rates occurring across northeastn Indiana.
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Water vapor imagery highlighting the stacked low positioned over southern Lower Michigan and associated plume of ascent spreading downstream across northern Indiana.
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700 mb heights and relative humidity depicting the saturation that was resolved by the RAP mesoanalysis as ascent associated with a low centered over southern Michigan spread east across northeast Indiana and adjacent Ohio and Michigan.
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Objectively analyzed surface observations during the time of peak snowfall rates occurring across northeast Indiana.
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RAP forecast sounding valid for northeast Indiana during the period of peak snowfall rates. Deep-layer saturation was present, but upward vertical motion was weak, particularly through the dendritic growth zone (-10 to -20 C layer). Snowfall accumulations were minor as a result.
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