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Strong winds knock out power to thousands

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Tens of thousands were without power Saturday afternoon as high winds uprooted trees and knocked down power lines across central Indiana.

An Indianapolis Power and Light official says 20,000 customers were affected by the wind storm. There is no estimate on when power will be restored.

Duke Energy reported around 37,000 without power in central Indiana at 8:30 p.m. Click here to see the Duke outage map.

An Indianapolis International Airport official said 15 planes were forced to circle due to high winds. All landed safely on the second attempt.

Gusts topped 50 mph for Indianapolis, Kokomo, Muncie, Shelbyville and Columbus.

In addition to the very windy conditions, snow showers fell mainly across our northern zones, but even the north and east sides of Indy saw snow flakes fly. There were reports of 0.25 inches to 0.5 inches of snow in Howard and Delaware counties.

An area of low pressure moving east across the Great Lakes helped to usher in blustery northwest winds and wrap around snow showers. Snow will end Saturday night and skies will become clear. Winds will finally wind down overnight.

It will be a cold with temperatures falling into the 20s. A freeze warning is in place for much of central Indiana from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. Sunday. Winds will shift to the southwest Sunday, allowing for a warm up during the afternoon as high pressure builds in.

The end of the weekend will be dry and sunny with highs in the 50s to near 60 degrees. Our next disturbance could trigger a few light rain showers Sunday night and early Monday. However, the next best chance for rain and possibly a few storms will be mid-week as a front rolls in Wednesday.

Temperatures will fall below normal again late in the week.

Any IPL customer without power is asked to call 317-261-8111.Click here to see IPL’s outage map.