The National Weather Service office in Indianapolis has issued Severe Thunderstorm Watch 704 for a large part of central, south-central and southwest Indiana, in effect from 4:44 p.m. EST on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, until 11 p.m. EST this evening. The watch covers 28 counties and includes Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Bloomington, Carmel, Fishers and Columbus, putting the state's busiest highway corridors — including I-70, I-74 and I-65 through the Indianapolis metro — inside the risk area for the Wednesday evening drive and freight window.
Source: National Weather Service Indianapolis via WWKI
Indiana Public Media reported that scattered thunderstorms were expected to develop late Wednesday afternoon into the evening, with the main threat a few isolated storms producing damaging wind gusts and large hail along the I-74 corridor. At 5:13 p.m., a severe thunderstorm was located near Terre Haute, moving east at 30 mph, with radar indicating 60 mph wind gusts and quarter-size hail.
Source: Indiana Public Media (NWS)
Warnings followed the watch within the hour
The watch was quickly followed by individual severe thunderstorm warnings in the Terre Haute area. Weather-alert records summarising National Weather Service Indianapolis products show a warning at 5:33 p.m. for a storm 9 miles southwest of Brazil, about 10 miles southeast of Terre Haute, moving east at 30 mph with golf-ball-size hail and 60 mph wind gusts, radar indicated; a further warning at 5:48 p.m. covered a storm 11 miles south of Brazil, 16 miles southeast of Terre Haute, again with 60 mph gusts and quarter-size hail. Golf-ball hail is large enough to dent vehicles and crack windscreens, which is why the warnings matter for anyone parked or driving in the open along the corridor.
The 28 counties named in Watch 704 are Bartholomew, Boone, Brown, Clay, Daviess, Decatur, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Jackson, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Marion, Martin, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Rush, Shelby, Sullivan, Vermillion and Vigo. The cities listed by the Weather Service include Bedford, Bloomington, Brazil, Carmel, Columbus, Crawfordsville, Fishers, Franklin, Greencastle, Greenfield, Greensburg, Greenwood, Indianapolis, Lebanon, Martinsville, Mitchell, Mooresville, Nashville, Noblesville, North Vernon, Plainfield, Rockville, Rushville, Seymour, Shelbyville, Terre Haute, Vincennes and Zionsville.
Why the evening window is the dangerous one
The Storm Prediction Center's Day 1 outlook, updated at 2 p.m. CST on Wednesday, placed parts of central and southern Indiana, western Kentucky and far southeastern Illinois under a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms, with severe hail, damaging winds and perhaps a tornado possible during the afternoon and evening. A watch means conditions are favourable for severe storms to form — it is not a guarantee for any one town — while a warning, like those issued near Terre Haute and Brazil, means a severe storm has been detected and people in its path should act immediately.
The risk window runs through 11 p.m. EST across the Indianapolis freight hub and the I-70/I-74 corridors toward Terre Haute and the Illinois line. High-profile trucks are the most vulnerable vehicles in 60 mph cross-gusts, and golf-ball hail can crack a windscreen in seconds. Drivers inside the watch area should follow National Weather Service Indianapolis updates, be ready to exit and park away from trees and signs if a warning is issued for their county, and never stop under an overpass in a hail core.
Indiana sits on some of the heaviest Punjabi and South Asian trucking routes in the Midwest: Indianapolis is a national logistics crossroads where I-70 (east–west) meets I-65, I-69 and I-74, and the Terre Haute corridor carries through-freight between Indianapolis and Illinois. Wednesday evening's storms cross that network at the tail of the day-shift delivery window, so dispatchers routing loads through central Indiana tonight should expect short weather delays rather than road closures — no interstate closure had been reported in connection with the watch as of early Wednesday evening.
What happens next: Watch 704 expires at 11 p.m. EST on Wednesday. The Weather Service can cancel counties early as the storm line moves east and the air stabilises, or extend and replace warnings storm by storm. Anyone in the 28-county area should keep alerts on through the evening and check the National Weather Service Indianapolis feed before travelling; Awaaz Punjab will update this story if the watch is extended or damage is reported.