Quiet overnight, then a milder Friday

Lake effect snows have finally met their demise.  There is enough moisture in the lower atmosphere so that clouds will remain stubborn, and there could be a few spots of freezing drizzle.

An area of high pressure now centered near Hudson’s Bay will nose its way into central New York and the Northeast on Friday.  That will cause quiet weather and some sunshine, especially during the morning.  More importantly, the pressure gradient (change in pressure over distance) will ease as the high builds in and our winds will become much lighter than the past couple days.

We continue to watch a major winter storm centered over the Plains this afternoon.  The main area of low pressure associated with this storm will track northeast into the Great Lakes by Saturday and weaken.  South-southeasterly winds ahead of this system will bring milder air into central New York to start the weekend.  Temperatures should warm close to 40 which means a few snow or rain snow showers for us. Since this initial low is weakening, precipitation Saturday should be rather scattered in nature.

It still looks like a secondary area of low pressure will form along the coast, close to New Jersey Saturday night and will strengthen rapidly.  The trends of our computer models today take this low farther east which means central New York would be grazed by the storm with a minimal impact.  There could be some snow Saturday night with just a light accumulation.

 The weather should be relatively quiet for Sunday (some snow showers) and Monday (some sun) but a new system will approach the East Coast later Tuesday.  Temperatures look to be borderline here in central New York so far now we are going with the chance of rain or wet snow for the midweek. Stay tuned.