More nuisance snow, cold for the Finger Lakes this week

Winter Holding On

Another coastal system will clip Central New York early this week, followed by another round of cold and lake effect snow midweek.

The weather set up to start the week should look familiar — low pressure is beginning to develop off the coast of the Carolinas while a second, weak low is tracking southeast through the Great Lakes.

This dual low pattern has set up three times now in the month of March, but with each system, the heaviest precipitation has been further and further east.

However, while the main precipitation from this coastal storm will remain over central and eastern New England, the frontal boundary between the two lows will set up over Central New York, leading to a secondary band of snow.

This snow should develop Monday evening and persist through much of Tuesday. Most of it will be light to moderate, and most of it will fall east of I-81, where a few inches could accumulate by Tuesday evening.

For the Finger Lakes, however, just some scattered snow showers are expected during this time with little, if any, accumulations.

Ahead of the flurries, skies will be cloudy on Monday. Temperatures will reach the mid and upper 30s today with low and mid 30s on Tuesday.

Late-Week Lake Effect

Moisture from the latest nor’easter will wrap around the system as it lifts north into New England and eastern Canada, entering into the Finger Lakes area from the north.

Like last week, this will lead to a spray of lake effect snow showers Tuesday night through Wednesday.

Higher elevations and areas near Lake Ontario will see the highest snow amounts, most likely on the order of 2-4 inches.  Only a coating is expected across the Southern Tier.

Wednesday will also be quite windy, with gusts approaching 40 mph.

High temperatures will struggle to reach 30 degrees, which means wind chills will be in the teens and low 20s throughout the day.

Clouds and a few snow showers may linger into Thursday and even Friday with temperatures remaining in the upper 20s and low 30s respectively.

The weather should quiet down for the weekend, with some sunshine and temperatures pushing towards 40 degrees by Sunday.