What could possibly come next? Well, flooding

We survived the big snow only to be slapped immediately with a big freeze.

This weekend, Hoosiers will have to prepare for the third leg of this week's punishing winter weather cycle: the big thaw.

And with that comes the risk of flooding and damage to homes.

Monday's temperatures — as low as minus 14, with wind chills as low as 25 to 40 degrees below zero — will give way to single digits today, then creep to the upper 20s by Wednesday and the 30s by the weekend.

"We're talking about a 50-degree swing," said Dan McCarthy, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's Indianapolis bureau.

McCarthy said that kind of shift makes conditions ripe for flooding, especially because the area was just socked with 11 or more inches of snow.

The late-week warm-up could present a soggy challenge for many motorists.

"As that thaws, the ground becomes saturated," McCarthy said. "A lot of that snow will run off into lakes and rivers. ... There will be flooding on the streets because of melting snow."

Homeowners who aren't cautious about clearing their gutters could face problems, too, McCarthy said.

"You have to knock some of the ice outside off your gutters," he said, adding that homeowners also will want to clear their drainage areas as soon as the weather is warm enough. "Sometimes that can creep in and cause water stains on your ceilings."

The flooding is expected to occur at the tail end of a weather pattern that McCarthy said is fairly common for Indiana — in normal conditions.

Indiana's snowstorms are typically brief affairs, he said. A chilly snowstorm system sweeps in from Canada, only to be countered with warm air coming up from the southern United States in a matter of days.

"If you're up in the northern Great Lakes, you wait months for this kind of thing," he said. "We get it in a week."

That will be the case this time, as well.

But this week's rapid weather changes were compounded by an unusually brutal storm system that swept through the Midwest on Sunday, bringing with it the lingering freezing air.

"When you have colder air coming in over snow-covered areas," McCarthy said, "it's going to remain cold."

While McCarthy suggested homeowners try to get a jump-start on preparing for the potential troubles from melting snow, authorities said they would step in to help — but only after the threat of severe cold has dissipated.

Monday afternoon, more than 24 hours after plows had taken to the roadways, Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman Nathan Riggs said there were still plenty of slick spots. At least a couple of semis jackknifed on area highways.

"Right now, the focus is really just on keeping the roads open and as safe as possible," Riggs said.

Call Star reporter Jill Disis at (317) 444-6137. Follow her on Twitter: @Jdisis.