Colder air is moving into central New York this evening, especially aloft. That is going to set the stage for lake effect snow over the next 24 to 36 hours. With the winds remaining essentially out of the west during this time, the bulk of the significant snowfall will be centered over a small portion of the region. It looks like parts of southern Jefferson, northern Oswego and Lewis counties could end up with a foot to two feet of new snow by Thursday morning.
Outside the heavier lake effect, the headline for the rest of central New York will be the wind and the cold. Wind should gust to close to 30 mph during Wednesday. That means our wind chills are likely to stay in the teens throughout the day. There will be snow showers on and off but any accumulation will be much, much lower than what happens over the Tug Hill.
The best chance for snow showers in the Syracuse area will come Thursday night into Friday. The storm that brought us the snow Monday night and earlier today will track northeast into eastern Canada where it will sit through the end of the week. It will stall because of a blocking area of high pressure situated north of Hudson’s Bay up to Greenland. A piece of that stalled low will shift back west and through central New York during this time. It will bring some moisture back our way and, more importantly shift our winds into the northwest and thus increase Syracuse’s chances for lake effect snow showers to end the week.
By the weekend, our eastern Canadian storm will finally begin to loosen its grip on us and move out into the Atlantic Ocean. That means we should dry out for Saturday and Sunday but don’t expect a big warm up. In fact, there our signs our temperatures will remain below normal right into next week.
