Tornadoes in December?

Yes, unfortunately this is true. It's rare but it can happen and it has happened before. The last time this happened was back in 2015.




On the plus side, of all the most violent and destructive tornadoes in Indiana's history, none of them have been in December.

Here is the latest discussion from the NWS out of Indianapolis:





Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Indianapolis IN
645 AM EST Fri Dec 10 2021

...Updated Aviation Discussion...

.Short Term...(Today through Saturday)
Issued at 321 AM EST Fri Dec 10 2021

...SEVERE WEATHER RISK late tonight into early Saturday...

Early this morning... Stratus clouds have continued to lift north of
the area, which allowed areas of dense fog to steadily expand in
coverage across much of Illinois into Central/Northern Indiana.
Observations have been fluctuating between near 1/8 of a mile to a
couple miles, but the trend has been steadily down. This will likely
result in a need for an early morning Dense Fog Advisory, which
given the lack of mixing and trapped moisture, any dense fog that
does develop could be slow to erode.

Warm frontal boundary continues to lift north across the region,
which can easily be found where Td`s climb to around 50 degrees.
Which is very anomalous for early Dec.

Focus for the remainder of the day will continue to be on the
impending severe weather, timing/coverage along with expected
hazards. There hasn`t been much change in the forecast approach the
last 24 hours. The one focus that has changed is the coverage of the
slight risk has shifted further north, along with an expansion to
the enhanced risk by the SPC. (spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/)

Trough axis will continue to deepen, which will lead to further
amplification of the overall wave. Additionally, northern stream cold
pool will create a very sharp baroclinic zone across the Northern
Plains later today. As these two systems progress eastward, the
surface low will continue to deepen as it quickly lifts across the
Missouri Valley towards the Chicago area tonight.

The challenges for late fall/winter systems is generation of typical
large CAPE, or the convective potential energy; however, what does
typically occur in these very dynamical setups is abundant shear
with considerable low-level moisture. Couple this with very robust
llvl jet of 60-70kts in the 850-825mb range, thus the atmosphere
will not need an abundance of CAPE to generate convection. In
addition to the aforementioned elements, which are only a portion of
the atmospheric setup, temperatures are poised to rapidly rise
throughout the day but more so late afternoon and evening. Current
guidance suggests temps will peak late this evening in the mid 60s,
coupled with a moisture rich environment and dewpoints equally in
the upper 50s to lower 60s.

Timing for the convective initiation continues to be focused on the
arrival of a very potent speed-max of 100kt around 500mb. This will
create the trigger, interacting with the moisture rich and extremely
sheared low-levels across the Tennessee Valley/Ohio Valley, and
likely linger well past midnight for the region, before a dry nose
begins to arrive around 6-9Z Sat.

As for the focus on storm mode: At the onset it still appears to be
more cellular; however, guidance continues to indicate steady upward
growth into more linear pieces or also known as QLCSs, carrying a
risk for damaging winds and possibly even an isolated tornado.
Directional shear continues to be more uniform in the lowest 1km;
however, speed shear is potent near 40-50kts. Coupled with shallow
LCLs, and the risk for tornadoes remains present especially in any
linear segments.

Area of greatest concern: With the minor adjustment from the SPC and
inclusion of an enhanced risk, the focus continues to be on the
Western TN/KY area stretching north into Central Indiana.




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