First Alert Forecast: Quiet through Thursday, then bitter cold, snow and wind arrive in WNY

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The next 24-48 hours will be fairly uneventful. In fact, winter arrives on Wednesday, and we’ll welcome it in with some sun and temperatures above freezing. Thursday will also be fairly mild with a few rain showers developing later in the afternoon. Some wet snow showers are possible south, but we won’t see anything accumulating. Rain picks up Thursday night into Friday morning, with temperatures likely rising into the lower 40s early Friday morning. Our temperatures will plunge into the 20s and even teens by Friday afternoon and evening. We’ll have a flash freeze as water on roads quickly ices over. To add to this, we’ll likely see a few inches of accumulating snow on top of that ice. The roads on Friday afternoon and evening will be quite icy and slick. Winds will be picking up quickly, with some damaging gusts possible Friday night into early Saturday morning. A Yellow Alert goes into effect for Friday and Saturday, travel will become tricky, if not dangerous at times. The lake effect machine begins to crank, with heavy lake effect snow west of Rochester, compliments of Lake Erie.

The heavy lake band may flirt with the Rochester area and parts of Monroe County at times on Christmas Eve and Day, but the heaviest snow will fall well west, over parts of Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming Counties. This, combined with gusty winds, will create blowing and drifting snow, perhaps blizzard conditions at times where the snow is falling. In addition to the wind and snow, it’ll be a cold Christmas holiday, with wind chills at or below zero.

We quiet things down the week between Christmas and New Years, with moderating temperatures and just a few light snow showers here and there. 

A Yellow Alert is our way of highlighting problematic weather as early as we can. This will likely be a changeable forecast with a complicated and multi-faceted storm system, so stay with News10NBC on-air and online for the latest updates.