Severe Weather Blog: Storms with strong winds, heavy rain and lightning roll across parts of central, southern Indiana (2024)

INDIANA, USA — We kick off the month of July and the holiday weekend with the continued stormy pattern.

Sunday brought a fourth straight day of watches and warnings.

Here are the latest updates on the storms:

Sunday

8:13 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Watch for Fayette & Wayne counties is in effect until 9:00 p.m. tonight.

6:54 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Monroe County is in effect until 7:30 p.m. tonight.

6:31 p.m.- A Severe Thunderstorm Watch for Bartholomew, Blackford, Brown, Cass, Decatur, Fayette, Grant, Lawrence, Miami, Monroe, Randolph, Rush & Wayne counties is in effect until 9:00 p.m. tonight.

6:25 p.m.-Authoritiesin Union County are investigating a report that a tree fell on two people at Whitewater State Park near Liberty.

5:22 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Fayette & Wayne counties is in effect until 6:15 p.m. this evening.

5:08 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Cass & Miami counties is in effect until 5:45 p.m. this evening.

4:58 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Delaware, Henry & Randolph counties is in effect until 5:45 p.m. this evening.

4:53 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Rush & Shelby counties is in effect until 5:15 p.m. this evening.

4:49 p.m. - Current outage reports from area utilities: AES: About 17,000. Duke Energy: Just over 37,000. Rush-Shelby Energy: About 1,500.

4:46 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Fayette & Wayne counties is in effect until 5:30 p.m. this evening.

4:39 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Decatur, Hanco*ck, Henry, Madison, Rush & Shelby counties is in effect until 5:30 p.m. this evening.

4:34 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Bartholomew, Johnson & Shelby counties is in effect until 5:00 p.m. this evening.

4:27 p.m.- A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Bartholomew, Brown, Johnson & Shelby counties is in effect until 5:00 p.m. this evening. Below is a current outage map across Indiana from Duke Energy.

4:23 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Bartholomew County is in effect until 5:00 p.m. this evening.

4:13 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Hamilton, Hanco*ck, Henry, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Rush & Shelby counties is in effect until 4:45 p.m. this afternoon.

4:08 p.m. - A special weather statement has been issued for Bloomington Franklin and Martinsville until 4:45 p.m.

3:59 p.m. - Heavy rain, strong winds as this storms moves across downtown Indianapolis. Over 65 mph winds reported in downtown Indy.

3:52 p.m.- A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Hamilton, Hanco*ck, Johnson, Marion, Morgan & Shelby counties is in effect until 4:15 PM this afternoon.

3:30 p.m. - Sean Ash goes live with an update on strong storms moving into downtown Indy.

3:21 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Hendricks, Marion & Morgan counties is in effect until 3:45 PM this afternoon.

3:11 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Morgan, Owen & Putnam counties is in effect until 3:45 PM this afternoon.

2:06 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Watch for Bartholomew, Boone, Brown, Clinton, Decatur, Delaware, Hamilton, Hanco*ck, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Johnson, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Putnam, Randolph, Rush, Shelby & Tipton counties is in effect until 9:00 PM tonight.

Saturday

10:17 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Watch for Bartholomew, Decatur, Delaware, Hanco*ck, Henry, Madison, Randolph, Rush & Shelby counties is in effect until 11:00 p.m. tonight.

10:00 p.m. - According to meteorologist Chelsea Stevens, counties are being shaved from the severe thunderstorm watch as storms begin to track east of I-65.

While there have been a couple of severe thunderstorm warnings, the majority of storms have stayed below severe criteria. Most storms will likely remain sub-severe with stronger storms producing wind gusts 50 mph or greater.

9:46 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is in effect for Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Delaware, Hamilton, Hanco*ck, Henry, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Randolph, Rush & Shelby counties until 11:00 p.m. Saturday.

9:04 p.m. - Gusts of up to 55+ mph gusts possible moving east toward central Indiana.

8:31 p.m. - A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Owen & Putnam counties is in effect until 9 p.m.

8:18 p.m. - If you're attending the Dave Matthews Band concert at Ruoff Music Center, Sean Ash had a heads-up for you... but a subsequent tweet suggests the show ended early because of the approaching storms.

6:45 p.m. - The National Weather Service of Indianapolis tweeted out that it may be unable to see tweeted reports of severe weather and associated damage this evening.

6:15 p.m. - Chelsea provides an update on storms approaching central and southern Indiana.

4:55 p.m.- Much of Indiana is now under a severe thunderstorm watch until 11 p.m. Saturday.

12:30 p.m. - In an update early Saturday afternoon, Duke Energy said nearly 170,000 customers have had their power restored after Thursday night's storms, though additional storms have caused around 20,000 more outages. Current outages stand at around 75,000.

Duke Energy estimated the vast majority of customers in the Bloomfield, Columbus, Franklin, Martinsville, and Vincennes areas will have power restored by midnight Saturday.

The vast majority of customers in the Bedford, Bloomington, Clinton, Greencastle, Princeton, Sullivan, and Terre Haute areas are expected to have power restored by midnight Sunday, though most will see power back before then, Duke Energy said.

At 12:30 p.m., AES Indiana was reporting 23,000 customers without power.

11 a.m.- Duke Energy reports around 74,000 costumers without power, down slightly from early this morning.

AES Indiana is currently reporting nearly 25,000 outages.

5:30 a.m. - Duke Energy reports around 77,000 customers without power, up from 65,000 around 11:15 p.m.

AES Indiana saw its outage numbers increase during Friday night's storms, but has since brought its number of customers without power down slightly to roughly 26,000.

Friday

11:15 p.m.- Duke Energy now has about 65,000 customers without power, down more than 40,000 from about 24 hours ago.

AES Indiana had restored power to more than 30,000 customers throughout the day Friday and got down to about 27,000 customers without power, but a line of storms that moved through the area around 10:30 p.m. has raised that number to about 30,000 currently in the dark.

9:30 p.m. - About 71,000 Duke Energy customers and 27,000 customers with AES Indiana are still without power after Thursday's storms.

Most of the Duke outages, affecting an estimated 44,000 customers, are centered in western Indiana in the Terre Haute area.

4:32 p.m.- At least 82,000 customers are without power as Duke Energy reports crews restored power for nearly 130,000 customers.

AES reports more than 35,349 customers are still without power.

1:34 p.m. - DNR said several state parks are without power or operating with partial power on Friday.

Two of those have total outages, the Department of Natural Resources told 13News. The properties currently experiencing outages are:

1:25 p.m.- 41,500 AES customers remain without power.

12:30 p.m. - Nearly 1,000 homes in Carmel are without power. Duke Energy is working hard to make repairs. Meanwhile, if you or one of your neighbors is without power and needs a place to get cool, Northview Church, 12900 Hazel Dell Parkway, is opening its doors to anyone who needs it today. Cold bottles of water are also available at the Church.

9:10 a.m. - Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, City-County public safety agencies and AES Indiana will hold a press conference at noon on Friday, June 30 to share the latest updates on power restoration efforts ahead of this weekend's potentially severe weather.

9:05 a.m. - Duke Energy confirmed it has restored power to more than 108,000 customers since Thursday afternoon.

"We are bringing in a small army to supplement our statewide workforce and speed power restoration," said Duke Energy Indiana President Stan Pinegar. "Our priority is always to restore service as quickly and safely as possible, and we appreciate our customers’ patience. We’re also keeping an eye on the weather because there’s the potential for more storms that could hamper restoration."

Workers from Duke Energy operations in Ohio, Kentucky and the Carolinas have come to Indiana to assist in restoring power.

Duke Energy said it will provide power restoration time estimates once there is more information from the damage assessed.

There are multiple ways to report power outages:

9 a.m. - Latest power outage numbers:

7 a.m. - Latest power outage numbers:

6 a.m. - Latest power outage numbers:

5 a.m. - Latest power outage numbers:

4 a.m. - Latest power outage numbers:

12:55 a.m.- Early Thursday, Duke Energy was still dealing with over 107,000 customers without power across the state. That's down about 27,000 customers in a little over four hours.

AES Indiana is still working to restore power to a little more than 63,000 customers.

Thursday

10:45 p.m. - The city of Indianapolis reported late Thursday that three Indianapolis Fire Department stations — Stations 1, 22 and 31 — are operating without power. Three other stations — Stations 26, 41 and 42 — are on generator power at last report.

Despite the power issues at those six stations, the city said crews are still in service and able to respond to emergencies.

There are also several traffic lights around the city that are out due to the power outage. If you encounter a non-functioning traffic light, treat it as a four-way stop. If the lights are flashing red, the intersection should be treated as if it were a stop sign. If they're flashing yellow, slow down and proceed with caution.

Call the Mayor's Action Center at 317-327-3622 to report a traffic signal outage. Press "2" to be connected.

Also, with more severe weather and extreme heat in the forecast, most Indy Parks Family Centers will be open as cooling centers for those in need. The Christian Park Family Center will not be open on Saturday, and the Rhodius Park Family Center will not be open Friday or Saturday. Other centers will be open as long as they have power.

For more information about the family centers, click here.

9:55 p.m. - AES reported 65,000 customers without power shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday.

8:30 p.m. - AES says 23,000 incidents have been reported Thursday throughout their service area. As of 8:30 p.m., about 63,000 customers remained without power.

AES urged customers to have an emergency back-up plan with the potential for more severe weather headed to central Indiana as crews work to restore power from Thursday's storms.

Duke is currently reporting more than 134,000 of their customers without power in 2,500 incidents.

7:20 p.m. - Duke Energy is now reporting more than 148,000 customers without power across the state. About half of those are in central Indiana, with 58,000 customers in the Terre Haute area and 11,000 in Evansville in the dark.

At the same time, AES Indiana reported nearly 70,000 customers affected by power outages in the metro area.

4:35 p.m. -Duke Energy reported about 53,000 customers are without power, while AES reported about 24,828 are without power due to severe thunderstorms in central Indiana.

4:12 p.m. - Fast off the heels ofswathy air pollution that had Hoosiers in a chokehold for days, people across the state are experiencing a rush of severe storms.

AES is reporting more than 19,000 people across the state are without power. 13News also heard reports of downed trees and power lines across the state from multiple EMS units.

At the time of publication, Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were issued for several central Indiana counties until 4:15 p.m. at the earliest.