INDIANAPOLIS — (Note: This story was originally written in 2016. Some of the information has been updated.)
Today, October 18th, marks the anniversary of the earliest snow to occur during the year on record in Indianapolis. Just two days removed from temperatures reaching 80 degrees... a potent, and well-modeled, mid-latitude cyclone took aim on the Ohio Valley and dropped the bulk of its heavy snow load in the northern half of Indiana and southwestern Lower Michigan.
Technically only .20" fell on October 18th, 1989 but over the next 72 hours nearly 10" of snowfall hit parts of Central Indiana in an early season snowstorm that produced snow on three consecutive days. Though it should be noted that due to compaction and melting, snow depths were in the 2" to 6" range at their peak.
By any metric, this was as anomalous as it gets in regards to snowfall this time of year in Indianapolis and Indiana. The 7.5" snowfall total on the 19th of October in 1989 in Indianapolis (and many other areas) is truly staggering. It's one of only 23 days on record since 1871 with 7.5"+ snowfall in Indy.
There have only been four October days on record in Indy with 1"+ snowfall...two of them occurred in that snowstorm back in 1989. The other two were 1.2" on October 25th, 1962 and 2.4" October 30th, 1993.
Even more astonishing was that this heavy snow occurred just a few days removed from 80°+ warmth! Temperatures on the 19th of October in 1989 hovered in the 32°-35° range all day during the heavy, wet snow....some 30° below average for mid-October and making it one of only seven October days with high temperature that cold!
This eclipsed the average first snowfall (November 19th) by a month and aided in record cold high temperatures on October 19th, 1989 of only 35 degrees in Indianapolis. As is the case with most early season snow events this was a heavy, wet snow which caused some power outages and downed trees as it fell on heavy foliage.
Icy roads quickly became wet by the afternoon of the 19th and snow pack quickly melted on the 21st when highs neared 60 degrees! Just another examples of the massive ups and downs that can be experienced in autumn in Central Indiana. You can read more about this even from the National Weather Service in Indianapolis here: https://www.weather.gov/ind/oct1989snow
Here's a picture recently shared to us from Carol Lee Cherry of her then four-year-old son, Casey, enjoying the early winter wonderland.
