Some St. Patrick’s Day Showers
Today will be a cloudy and dreary day across the Finger Lakes as a cold front treks through the region.
This front is crossing the Great Lakes early this morning. An area of precipitation along a pseudo warm front has already pushed to the east. Temperatures range from the mid 30s to the low 40s early this morning.
Temperatures will rise into the mid 40s by the midday hours but will fall back a couple degrees thereafter as the front pushes east.
Until the front moves through, there will be scattered showers about the Finger Lakes. None of the rain should be heavy. The rain chances will drop for the afternoon, though a stray shower or bit of drizzle is not impossible.
Winds will be a bit blustery as they turn from the south this morning to the west this afternoon. Top gusts should stay between 25-30 mph for most areas, though.
The wind will become more northwesterly this evening. Another shower or flurry will be possible along the wind shift, followed by clearing skies.
Active Late Week Pattern
Wednesday will turn out a lot like Monday did. Early sunshine will gradually be replaced by first thin clouds, then thicker ones.
Temperatures will start in the 20s before rising to the upper 40s for the afternoon. A few places will hit 50 degrees, mostly across the Southern Tier between Corning and Binghamton.
Rain will move in during the evening and continue overnight. Most of the rain should be east by Thursday morning. Temperatures during the rain should stay in the upper 30s, so snow is not expected even over higher elevations.
South winds will increase on Thursday, pumping warm air into the region. Even though sunshine will be limited, highs should reach the mid and upper 50s with a few places even reaching 60 degrees.
Another push of warmer air will move in Thursday night with a batch of rain and increasing wind speeds. Temperatures will only have the chance to drop into the low 50s in the evening before rising overnight. By Friday morning, many areas will be in the upper 50s or low 60s.
South and southwest winds will gust between 45-55 mph for a time Thursday evening before decreasing slightly overnight. The wind will build again through Friday morning with many gusts over 50 mph during the day Friday. These winds, too, will be from the southwest.
A few showers will linger Friday morning before new showers, and a few thunderstorms, develop for the midday and afternoon hours. Given the amount of wind present in the atmosphere, any thunderstorms that do develop may be able to tap into the strong winds and produce some locally damaging wind gusts. This will be something to monitor over the next few days.
Temperatures will top out in the upper 60s to near 70 degrees on Friday. The models are in very good agreement of this.
The models are also in equally good agreement that the weather will crash hard Friday night. Morning lows Saturday will fall all the way to the upper teens and low 20s, thanks to winds turning to the northwest and gusting over 30 mph through the night.
Saturday will turn out to be a sunny, but raw day. Winds will slowly decrease but will gust over 25 mph most of the day. High temperatures will only reach the upper 20s and low 30s, some forty degrees colder than the day before.
Sunday will also be sunny but with light winds. Temperatures will respond by not being quite so cold, with highs in the upper 30s.
Active weather will then return for next week, with temperatures generally, but not always, mild.
