Lake effect snow warnings issued for western, central NY

“The city? Doesn’t look like much”, said Jim Mitchell, National Weather Service meteorologist. Two to four inches of snow accumulation are possible in the Coast Range and Cascade foothills. A mix of sleet and snow is likely to develop in the valley, but will transition to rain by Thursday afternoon.

West Michigan’s lake-effect snow kicks up in late fall and lasts into winter.

With westerly winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour, visibility could at times be cut to a quarter mile.

Wednesday will offer a reprieve in the weather, just in time to make any final preparations for the significant lake effect event taking aim at the forecast area for Thursday into Saturday (more on that below).

The winter weather advisory means snow, freezing precipitation, wind and cold temperatures will combine to create hazardous conditions. Driving conditions will be hard and the Friday morning commute could be significantly impacted.

Warm air is less dense than cold air, so it rises.

There may be a few scattered snow showers on Friday.

The Gillette area is under a winter weather advisory Monday with snow and winds combining to produce limited visibility, possible drifting conditions and potentially risky driving conditions. We can’t pin down a snow forecast enough to give you one number at one location. The coast will not accumulate much, if any snow, but nearly all other areas will have snow that transitions to rain Friday morning.

Snow is expected to be heavy over parts of the Northern Plains/Upper Mississippi Valley. Temperatures could drop to as low as 23 degrees Thursday night.

With the rain later Thursday night, winds will start coming from the south, which will warm up the region. The next storm system will be here by late Saturday into Sunday. But with the wind chill, these temperatures can feel as low as -10 to -30 degrees on exposed skin.