Lake effect north of Syracuse overnight

A reinforcing shot of cold air continues to move into central New York .We think that will cause a renewed area of lake effect snow to fall over parts of central New York overnight. The winds early today were light but with a jet stream disturbance passing to our east during the evening our winds are starting to increase from the west.  That puts areas north from Syracuse north at risk for heavy snow overnight.  New snow of 6-10” are possible in the most persistent snows.  Outside the snow overnight it will be cold.

Lake effect snow starts Tuesday north of Syracuse but heading into the middle of the day we should start to see a shift in our winds and that will mean a shift in the lake effect snow.  After dropping another 6-12” over parts of Oswego, Lewis and northern Oneida counties in the morning, the band of snow will start to drop south as our winds shift into the west-northwest.  Syracuse is likely to get into some heavier squalls during the afternoon with accumulations of 1-4” possible by evening.

Outside the lake effect, the big story Tuesday will be the cold.  Temperatures will only rise into the mid teens but that is not factoring the wind.  We expect sustained winds of 15 to 30 mph and that is going to make it feel like it is between 0 and 10 below.  That wind is also going to cause quite a bit of blowing and drifting snow in and around the bands of snow leading to whiteout conditions.

Our winds look like they will stay out of the west-northwest Tuesday night which means heavier lake effect snow will hang out close to or just north of Syracuse.  There will be an additional heavy accumulation of lake effect snow where ever this band sets up tomorrow night.

Drier air will try to move in for Wednesday so the lake effect probably won’t be as productive.  It will also be the coldest day of this stretch of arctic air.  Syracuse may not reach 10 above for a high temperature.

A separate system looks to bring widespread snow to the region Friday as cold air should remain in Central New York for the weekend.