Sunday’s Lake Effect Snow
A cold front is passing through the Finger Lakes Sunday morning, bringing a light coating of snow to some areas.
The scattered snow showers and occasional squall will continue to move east this morning. No more than a coating of snow is expected.
Through the midday hours, these snow showers should be all there is to worry about in the Finger Lakes and surrounding regions.
However, as cold air works in behind the front, lake effect snow will develop east-northeast of the Great Lakes. With this wind direction, Lake Ontario will not be a factor in the weather across our area, but Lake Erie will be.
Lake effect will begin to develop during the early afternoon hours in the Buffalo south towns. Periods of heavy snow are likely during the Buffalo Bills’ home game this afternoon, which always makes for some interesting football.
The lake effect squalls will spread northwest towards Rochester during the mid and late afternoon hours before the squalls retreat back towards Lake Erie and start to move south this evening.
As usual, outside of the lake effect, skies will be a mix of clouds and some sun with the occasional flurry. Winds will be gusty and temperatures will struggle to even reach 30 degrees.
Snow accumulations through midnight tonight should be limited to the western parts of the region, with a couple inches possible in the Rochester area with more significant accumulations further southwest.
For most of the Finger Lakes though, little to no additional accumulation is expected after this morning’s coating.
Snowier Week Ahead
There will be ample opportunity for snow across the rest of the Finger Lakes this week, including the first widespread accumulating snow of the season.
Lake effect snow will extend east into the Finger Lakes off of Lake Erie for a time after midnight Sunday night, but will quickly dissipate Monday morning.
The next weather system will then spread an area of snow across the region Monday night through the first half of Tuesday. Several inches of widespread snow accumulation is likely.
Behind this system, northwest winds will bring lake effect snow off of Lake Ontario into the northern and eastern portions of the region. Several more inches may fall between Wednesday and Thursday.
Of course, I will have more details on these additional snow events as they draw closer. Look for a full report on the widespread snow, including a snow accumulation map, on Monday morning.
