Breezy and colder Thursday, some snow Friday and Saturday

While not as strong as yesterday, the wind will remain gusty on Thursday. Some snow will return to the region Friday and Saturday.

Blustery But Mostly Dry Thursday

Breezy conditions remain in place across the Finger Lakes after Wednesday’s wind storm.

Particularly hard hit were areas between Rochester and Binghamton. Rochester recorded its strongest non-thunderstorm wind gust since records began in 1941 with an 81 mph wind. Tens of thousands lost power, and the wind even derailed a train in Batavia.

The wind today will not come close to those impacts, but may still gust over 40 mph, especially across the I-90 Corridor. The wind will be less the further south and west you go, with top gusts around 30 mph for the western Southern Tier.

Outside of the wind, skies will be a mix of sun and clouds. A couple of showers may be possible, especially early in the day. Most of the time should be precipitation-free.

Temperatures will be cooler than in recent days, but very close to the seasonal normals for early March. Look for temperatures to top out near or just below 40 degrees this afternoon.

Pennsylvania Snow Clips the Finger Lakes

A storm system will dive out of the Midwest today and track into the Mid-Atlantic states on Friday. Just north of the path of this system, a swath of snow will fall.

Several inches are likely to streak across Pennsylvania tonight and into Friday as this system moves through. It seems unlikely that the core of the snow will come north of the state line, but some light snow will still be possible in the Finger Lakes, especially for the southern areas.

Some snow showers may start showing up as early as this evening across the western Southern Tier before spreading east overnight. Light snow will continue into early Friday morning before the system pulls away.

The best chance for an inch of snow will be across the Southern Tier counties bordering Pennsylvania. The central Finger Lakes could see a coating, while areas further north should not see more than a few flakes.

Arctic Cold Invades

Behind this system, arctic cold will flood into the Finger Lakes. The Great Lakes will respond with areas of lake effect starting later Friday and persisting through Saturday and into early Sunday.

Some areas could see several inches of snow between Friday evening and Sunday morning. This is most likely to occur for areas roughly between Rochester, Syracuse, and Ithaca.

The cold will be a bigger story than the snow, however. After temperatures top out in the upper 20s on Friday, they will drop into the single digits Saturday morning. Strong winds in excess of 40 mph will move back into the region.

This will result in morning wind chills well below zero on Saturday. Temperatures will only rise to the upper teens, keeping the wind chill near 0 for most of Saturday.

With lake snows persisting, the wind will also create hazardous road conditions with blowing and drifting snow.

Conditions will improve slightly on Sunday as the winds lessen somewhat and the lake snows diminish. Still, gusts over 30 mph will be possible and high temperatures will generally stay in the teens once again.