Cold Friday then brief warm up Saturday

Colder air has been moving into central New York all day today and will be with us through tonight into Friday. In spite of the cold air, lake effect should be limited to mainly flurries tonight and early Friday as the air over us will be fairly dry.  Outside any lake effect flurries tomorrow, there should be some sun but even that sun won’t be able to warm us beyond the mid 20s during the afternoon.

After tomorrow, we expect a brief return of milder air to central New York. A deepening area of low pressure will head into the western Great Lakes on Saturday. The counterclockwise winds around this low will mean a steady southwesterly breeze importing milder air into central New York. It looks like temperatures may actually rise Friday night as the wind increases and we should end up about 10 degrees above normal during Saturday.

We only expect a brief warm up for central New York because as low pressure tracks from the Great Lakes into eastern Canada Sunday it will drag a strong cold front through the state. That means there should be quite a bit of change around here to end the weekend.  We think temperatures will drop through the 20s and will be accompanied by gusty winds and even lake effect snow.  The lake snow would be concentrated east of Lake Ontario during the day but could very well drop south into the Syracuse area Sunday night as winds turn into the northwest.

This shot of arctic air arriving Sunday will be colder than what is over us now and will last longer as well. We figure there should be two or three days where highs only make it into the teens. As mentioned earlier, we will also focus closely on what the wind directions are during this time since lake effect will be a concern given the depth of the cold air. We’ll keep you posted.