Another cold night is expected across central New York tonight. The coldest weather will likely end up from Syracuse east where there will be the fewest clouds. Temperatures will drop below zero and northeast of Syracuse the temperatures will be colder than 10 below.
West of Syracuse tonight it won’t be quite as cold as there will be more of influence from Lake Ontario in the form of some clouds. There could even be a few flurries after midnight and our computer models still point toward a small-scale feature called a meso-low coming off the lake traveling south into the Finger Lakes. This means the potential for a brief burst of snow that could bring up to an inch of new snow. This feature would weaken and move out of the region by sunrise.
Thursday will be another cold day for central New York as we will still be under the influence of arctic air. Technically, our air temperature will be higher than today but there will be more wind to contend with. We expect wind chills to be below zero during the day. In addition, our winds will be out of the northwest which means there could still be some lake effect around. The air over us, however, will be fairly dry so there should only be a few flurries.
By Friday, two areas of low pressure, one to our south and one farther north, will move east. The southern system and the one that has more moisture, looks to stay south of the region while the northern system, one with less moisture, looks to impact the region with some snow showers or even some light snow.
With both of these areas of low pressure moving east, the arctic air will be reinforced for the start of the weekend. By the end of the weekend and early next week the arctic air will lift back into Canada and our temperatures will have a chance to moderate.
