Shopping for a new home? Ready to renovate your kitchen or install a new deck? You’ll be paying more to […]
Menu
Close
Menu
Close
Heavy snow, strong winds and a dramatic temperature drop could lead to significant travel impacts, power outages and icy conditions Friday through Monday.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A major winter storm could make a mess of the holiday travel season this week with impacts for the entire Great Lakes region including all of Western New York. Our region has not seen a storm like this in quite some time.
On Wednesday, a wave of energy moving in over the Rocky Mountains will quickly organize into a low pressure system, eventually becoming a winter storm. This low pressure will be strongest this area has seen in many years. As it heads from Colorado to the Great Lakes, it’ll have the opportunity to rapidly intensity Thursday and bring blizzard-like conditions with heavy snow, gusty winds and bitterly cold temperatures across the Upper Midwest and central Plains. Travel by air and road will greatly be impacted, potentially even dangerous at times.
Here in Western New York, this storm system will first bring light rain later on Thursday. The rain will last into Friday morning as winds pick up. But on Friday, rain will quickly flip to snow as the system moves in, bringing even stronger winds and very cold temperatures. Travel will begin to become very difficult by Friday afternoon and last that way as the snow and wind continues through the entire holiday weekend.
And National Weather Service in Buffalo issued a Winter Storm Watch for almost all of Western New York with the exception of Allegany County. This watch is for 7 a.m. Friday through 7 a.m. Monday. Heavy snow, whiteout conditions, strong wind gusts, a flash freeze, lakeshore flooding, and dangerous wind chills are all potential threats. These leading to impacts of difficult to impossible road travel, cancellations at the Buffalo Airport, and power outages.
It’s because of this that goverment officals are recommending to be wherever you plan on being for the holiday weekend by Friday and avoid travel Friday evening through Sunday evening, potentially the worst of this storm.
The temperature fall may be dramatic and could cause a flash freeze Friday afternoon before the snow really accumulates. Also, the strong winds could cause lakeshore flooding. A Lakeshore Flood Watch has been issued for Niagara, Erie and Chautauqua counties because of this.
As for the holiday weekend, this powerful low pressure system will continue to swirl to the north over Ontario and Quebec. This will keep Western New York’s forecast frigid and snowy throughout the entire weekend, thanks to a potential wind direction alignment with Lake Erie. Yes, that means the potential for lake effect snow showers both Christmas Even and Day.
This lake effect snow set up will be heavily dependent on wind direction and speed over the lake. But with such cold air overhead this weekend, temperatures in the single digits or teens, and an open lake, this will lead to the chance for heavy lake effect snow showers. Right now, models are keying in on the Southern Tier for the heaviest snow and gustiest winds of the weekend, but that can quickly change and shift as the system and forecast evolves.
Shopping for a new home? Ready to renovate your kitchen or install a new deck? You’ll be paying more to […]
The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale inflation decelerated last month, suggesting that price pressures are easing for now. But the progress […]
){kind=small}