Live Winter Storm Updates Tuesday March 14

pmSnow, often heavy, will persist through all of the day Tuesday.Updated at 9:45 pm. Significant accumulations of snow are likely on Tuesday as heavy snow moves through the Finger Lakes.

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9:45 pm Tuesday Night Update- Final Update

The storm center has maintained its strength over the last hours, but has not strengthened further. It is likely starting its decline phase as it lifts north towards Maine.

As the storm starts its decline and continues to move further away, the very intense snow bands that were common this afternoon and early evening will dissipate. Snow rates will decline for the remainder of the night, with steady but generally lower intensity snow Wednesday morning.

Lake enhancement near and southeast of Lake Ontario will keep the snow going for much of Wednesday while the southwestern reaches of the Finger Lakes dry out. Still, the major problem tomorrow will be strong winds and blowing snow.

Travel conditions will improve little, if at all overnight and Wednesday due to the wind. Several more inches of snow may also still fall, especially in the areas of lake enhancement. Caution still needs to be exercised.

Many counties have travel restrictions in place. Be sure to check with local media and law enforcement sources online before attempting to head out tomorrow.

I will be back for the morning update before 8 am. Have a safe and warm night.

5 pm Tuesday Update- Evening Audio Update

The Evening Audio Update has been posted. Please click here for the audio and associated transcript.

2:30 pm Tuesday Update- Storm Progressing as Planned

There is honestly not very much to update on at this point. The storm is progressing as expected. If I had to make one observation, it would be that the snowflake size is not quite as large and flaky as I had anticipated as temperatures are colder than expected.

However, that does not seem to be having a huge impact on snow totals. Much of the Finger Lakes is in the 5-10″ range so far with heavy snow continuing to fall. Areas just east of the Finger Lakes, from Binghamton to Norwich and Oneonta, already have 18-24″ of snow which will easily verify the 20-30″ range I put on my snow map yesterday morning.

The storm itself is centered off the coast of New Jersey just south of Long Island. It has strengthened into a strong storm system, as was expected.

As the storm lifts north towards New England, winds will continue to shift from the northeast to the north and northwest. Heavier lake enhanced snow that has been falling southwest of Lake Ontario back towards Buffalo should shift east into the northern Finger Lakes this afternoon and evening. Heavy snow bands over the eastern Finger Lakes will continue to pivot across the area.

Please check with your local media for the latest travel bans and regulations. Tompkins County, for example, has a travel ban going into effect at 3 pm.

Since everything is going as planned, my next update will likely be the evening audio update between 5-6 pm.

11 am Tuesday Updates- Snow Intensity Increasing

The storm center continues to strengthen late Tuesday morning as it moves up the east coast. As the center draws closer, heavier precipitation is spiraling west towards the Finger Lakes.

Extreme snow is widespread across central New York with snowfall rates in excess of two inches per hour. Heavier, fluffier snow will continue to work west over the next few hours.

The heaviest snow is still expected over the eastern half of the Finger Lakes, with some very high snow totals east of I-81. Meanwhile, the western edge of the system is fairly well defined, but as winds swing around from the northeast to a more northerly direction, Lake Ontario’s impact will begin to be felt more.

All in all, it is still rather early in the evolution of this storm. Everything is generally going as expected. I have updated the zip-code forecasts to better reflect the current trends with the storm. Please continue to send me your reports!

Thank you all for your concern over my family’s illness. Your kindness means a lot to me and is very touching! 🙂

8 am Tuesday Updates

Looking at the latest radar and observation data, the storm is on track as expected. At this point, the center of the system is along the coast of Deleware and will gradually track up the coast today. By this evening, the center should be just south of Boston and by tomorrow morning, it will move inland over Maine.

Precipitation is widespread across the Finger Lakes and increases in intensity the further south and east you go. The snow is starting to become very heavy from Elmira to just south of Ithaca and Cortland, with an extreme band of snow extending from northern Pennsylvania to Binghamton to Norwich.

While the heavy snow is expanding north and west, that extreme band is remaining about in place so far with snow totals already approaching a foot with snow rates in excess of two inches an hour.

The snow accumulation map I made yesterday and am reposting here seems to be in generally good shape.

Over the next 12 hours, most of the snow shown on the map will fall. Snow will become lighter overnight, except near Lake Ontario where it will continue to be enhanced by the lake. Moderate snow will continue into Wednesday.

The wind is still expected to be a bit gusty today and tonight before becoming strong on Wednesday with gusts over 40 mph. Significant drifting and near whiteout conditions are likely.

Side Notes

I will continue to update this blog as much as possible throughout the day today. Depending on circumstances, I may even post a few short videos. This evening I will do another audio update between 5-6 pm.

On a more personal note, I run this website completely on my own. Overnight, the stomach bug struck half my family. Therefore, I may not be as quick to update as I will be caring for them. So far, I have been spared the sickness, but if that changes, you may not hear much from me for a while!

Please stay safe today and be smart. A State of Emergency has been declared for the entire state. This does not mean that the roads are closed but opens channels of funding to cope with the storm. Still, if you can avoid going out, please do so. The fewer cars that are on the road, the easier a time the road crews and emergency vehicles will have. If you do have to go out, give yourself more time than you think you need, turn on your headlights, and be safe.

Finally, thank you all for using Finger Lakes Weather. I have been seeing unprecedented amounts of traffic on my website during this event. Over 30,000 pageloads were logged on Monday alone. I am so happy to be able to serve the Finger Lakes with honest, accessible, and accurate weather information! The influx of traffic did briefly cause my site to go down yesterday. Please let me know if that happens again. My host and I are looking into some leads to prevent that in the future.

If you are a business in the Finger Lakes and would like to tap into the huge following FLXWeather has, please check out the sponsorship opportunities. Sponsors fund FLXWeather through their ads and have been a huge part of the success of my site. Equally important are the individuals who have donated. Your generosity has been overwhelming. Thank you!

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