A cold front moved through the Finger Lakes Thursday night, and high pressure over the Ohio Valley is extending northeast into the Finger Lakes.
These two factors will be the main impacts on our weather for Friday. The result will be a cool, but sunny day across the region.
Cold air behind last night’s cold front is being supported by a westerly flow south of low pressure over Canada. This will keep temperatures near average for Friday, despite bright, sunny skies. Expect high temperatures this afternoon in the mid 40s. This is a rise of only about 10 degrees from the morning temperatures, which is very small given the bright sunshine.
Temperatures will quickly drop off this evening as the sun sets. Just how cold it gets this evening will be determined by how quickly clods arrive from the west.
Current thinking is that there will be a couple hours of partly cloudy to mostly clear skies before the clouds arrive. This should allow temperatures to drop well into the 30s before holding steady or only slowly dropping the rest of the night. Should the clear skies hold out longer, some places could even slip into the 20s.
Saturday will be very similar to Friday, only instead of mostly sunny skies, it will be mostly cloudy. Temperatures will again rise to the mid 40s. No precipitation is expected from the clouds during the day on Saturday.
The clouds will be in response to a developing area of low pressure that will track from the Ohio Valley, north across Lake Erie and into southern Ontario. Very little precipitation is expected to make it into the Finger Lakes, with just a few flurries or showers after midnight Saturday night and very early Sunday morning.
This storm system will bring in colder air though, along with some gusty winds for a few hours Sunday morning. Peak gusts should be between 30-40 mph for most of the region before winds taper during the afternoon. Some lake effect snow should develop east of the Great Lakes, but only a few scattered flurries or showers are expected in the Finger Lakes on Sunday into early Monday.
Most of next week looks quiet at this point. Temperatures will bottom out early Monday morning, with widespread 20s and maybe even a couple of areas reaching the teens. Highs on Monday will not escape the 30s. After that though, temperatures will moderate. By Thanksgiving, we may even be able to breach 50 degrees.
