A very cold air mass continues to produce lake effect snow downwind of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. While most of the Lake Erie snow is confined to southwest New York and northwest Pennsylvania, snow from Lake Ontario continues across parts of the northern and eastern Finger Lakes.
Early Tuesday morning, a spray of flurries and squalls from Rochester to Syracuse to Ithaca was coming off Lake Ontario. This area of snow will weaken this morning before reorganizing this afternoon. Areas from Oswego to Auburn to Syracuse will have the best shot at seeing snow between noon and midnight on Tuesday.
The lake effect will then drift south overnight, impacting much of Wayne, Cayuga and Cortland counties will clipping parts of Seneca, Tompkins and Onondaga counties. Several inches may fall in these areas before the lake effect again dissipates Wednesday morning.
A few scattered snow showers will drift through later Wednesday along a weak weather system. Some lighter lake effect snow will then develop later Wednesday night into Thursday for some areas that have not seen much lake effect yet, including Seneca and Tompkins counties. A few more inches may fall before high pressure puts an end to the lake effect later Thursday.
This high pressure will bring a pleasant day on Friday with some sunshine and temperatures in the mid to upper 20s. At this time, it also looks like this high pressure will block a strong winter storm from making it very far north this weekend.
Still, the forecast for this weekend is uncertain and many new details will be coming in on the storm system as it moves onshore in the Pacific Northwest today. Stay tuned.
