INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Winter chills return for the first day of Spring. Temperatures should bounce back for the weekend.

Thursday:

An area of low pressure at the surface is just to our west very early this morning and continuing to move northeastward. This is the same system that brought us the severe storms and gusty winds for much of the day on Wednesday.

The attached cold front has already moved through, which is now opening the front door to colder air moving into central Indiana for the day. On the back end of the system, it will squeeze out some rain, possibly even some snow showers across our area, especially in the northern half of the state. No accumulation is expected around Central Indiana as the ground is too warm.

We have likely already hit our high temperature for the day today. With cold air advection moving in, temperatures will slowly decline heading into the late morning and afternoon hours.

Meanwhile, winds will still be an issue. Although we should have slightly lighter winds than Wednesday, we will be just below wind advisory criteria with gusts peaking up to 40 mph at times. With the combination of chilly temperatures and possibly some snow showers, all three will make for a pretty miserable day.

Thursday night:

We should start to calm things down this evening and into the overnight hours. Winds will diminish, and temperatures will fall quickly under clearing skies. Look for overnight lows to go below freezing, dipping down into the mid to upper 20s.

Friday:

Friday doesn’t look to be a bad day. Look for mainly dry with slightly breezy conditions heading into the afternoon. But we should be mostly sunny with near-normal temperatures. Highs will top out in the mid to upper 50s.

There is a very weak system that will pass by very late Friday night but before daybreak on Saturday. This could squeeze out some very light showers in parts of the state but should really have minimal impact for the overnight hours.

This weekend:

Saturday will be a quiet day as we’re lodged in between two systems. Our high temperatures will be slightly below normal with partly cloudy skies. High temperatures will top out in the low 50s.

Showers will return as we head into your Sunday as a system passes through. There will be a lot more moisture as the storm complex moves through the area, so widespread showers are likely at least for parts of the day on Sunday.

Meanwhile, temperatures should be a bit warmer with highs in the mid to upper 50s to wrap up the weekend.

Extended forecast:

We will start off the new work week a little cooler but not a significant cooldown. High temperatures will be about five or six degrees below average for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. There is a slight chance for showers both Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

The long-range pattern has our temperatures warming up at least a little bit. Cooler air looks to retreat back to the north for the back half of the week and into the weekend, allowing for slightly above normal temperatures to close out the month of March.