Saturday morning rain across Finger Lakes

A period of enhanced rainfall across the Finger Lakes early Saturday morning could bring over a half inch to some areas.

Sponsored By: Ithaca Celtic Festival

This post is specially sponsored by the Ithaca Celtic Festival, which takes place Saturday at Stewart Park in Ithaca from 10am-6pm. From the Ithaca Celtic Festival Website:

“Family friendly event with a focus on education and children’s activities. But not to exclude the adults looking for a blast. We have a refreshment tent with local wines and Guinness. 3 stages featuring amazing talent with the main stage headlined by The Brigadoons from Canada. There will be Scottish heavy athletics, bagpipe bands & soloists, sheep shearing & fiber arts, Irish step dancing and Celtic foods & craft vendors.”

Admission is $12 for adults, $8 for students and senior citizens, and free for children under 5 years old. Among the vendors will be my other business, Ye Olde Goat Cart soap, so stop by and mention Finger Lakes Weather for a 10% discount on your purchase from our tent!

You can find out more about being a sponsor and boosting your business with high traffic advertising through Finger Lakes Weather by checking out the Sponsorship Page. Sponsors are a vital asset to keeping Finger Lakes Weather running and free for all to use!

Cold Front Brings Rain

A much advertised cold front is still expected to bring rain to the Finger Lakes region early Saturday morning.

Computer models continue to indicate that some tropical moisture pushed north by Hurricane Matthew will help enhance the rain for a time. Matthew alone will not be responsible for the extra rain, as there are a number of other factors at play completely unrelated to the hurricane.

The best chance for this enhancement of the rain will be across many of the areas that need it most: the heart of the Finger Lakes. This will not be drought-busting rain by any measure, but some areas could see over a half inch.

This band of heavier rain will develop shortly after midnight and will slowly track east during the predawn hours. By early Saturday morning, the rain should be moving into the eastern Finger Lakes. The rain will start to fall apart some by mid morning as it heads towards Central New York.

Some scattered showers will remain possible throughout Saturday, but most of the day should not be a washout.

Temperatures on Saturday will rise into the 60s during the afternoon. A few lake effect rain showers will be possible Sunday morning before the afternoon dries out with highs in the upper 50s.

Hurricane Matthew Strafes Florida

Hurricane force winds from Matthew have moved onshore in central East Florida near Cape Canaveral, where a 107mph wind gust was recently recorded. So far, the eye remains just off the coast. Winds at the 5am update were estimated to be 120 mph, making Matthew a Category 3 Hurricane.

Heavy rain and strong winds extend far inland. Dangerous storm surge along the coast and flooding will continue, even if the eye of the storm never quite makes it on shore.

Matthew should continue to weaken as it moves north along the coast. The interaction with land and less than ideal atmospheric conditions should cause fairly rapid weakening. This will remain a dangerous storm into Georgia and the Carolinas before it turns east out to sea.

Matthew is expected to loop back towards the Bahamas early next week. However, this will be a much different storm than the category 4 hurricane that tore through the islands yesterday. At most, Matthew will be a moderate tropical storm and it may even be on its last breaths by then with a hostile environment in place.