Disruptive fall storm to impact Great Lakes, Midwest during busiest travel week of year

Major fall storm system to impact the region Tuesday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week.

It's the time of year when Mother Nature tends to bring us fall storms capable of rain, snow, a combination of the two, and plenty of wind.

So it only makes sense that we are tracking one in the near future. 

The unfortunate part about this particular storm is it will impact the Midwest and Great Lakes during the busiest travel time of the year.

Yep, both Tuesday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week are set to be affected by our next significant storm system. 

Thankfully we will be on the warm side of the system this go-around. That means we are expecting all rain and absolutely no snow here in Michiana. 

The same can't be said for areas just to our north. Parts of northern Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan will see snow Tuesday into Wednesday, and it will likely accumulate. 

That's something to keep in mind if you are traveling north or west for Thanksgiving. For us locally, we're looking at rain and wind as the biggest impacts late Tuesday into Wednesday morning.

Rain will become likely by 3 p.m. Tuesday and could fall on-and-off through late Wednesday morning. Heavy rain and flooding are not expected at this time. 

However, thunder may occur due to temperatures surging into the 50s Tuesday night. 

Wind will likely end up being the headline with this particular fall system. Wind will pick up Tuesday evening and remain strong to very strong through early Wednesday afternoon.

During this window, wind gusts of 40-55 mph are possible across much of northeast Illinois, northern Indiana, northern Ohio, and Michigan. 

It wouldn't be out of the question for some gusts to exceed 55 mph depending on exactly how strong the low winds up getting as pushes across the Great Lakes. 

Winds of this strength could lead to downed trees and power lines, in addition to power outage concerns. In addition, large waves of 6-10' could batter the Lake Michigan shoreline, further worsening the erosion issue.

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