First Alert Weather: Overcast on Wednesday and tracking snow later this week

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — We’ve got a cloudy but mild and mainly dry Wednesday ahead of us, as a warm front passes through the region ahead of a low-pressure system coming out of the midwest.

That system will bring us heavy showers later Wednesday night, dropping up to a half inch of rain. Temperatures will peak in the high 50s.

By Thursday morning, that rain band will have passed, only for the rain to return by the afternoon. However, in the higher elevations more inland, this rain will turn to wet snow. It is unlikely this snow will reach northward enough to land in the Rochester metro area, and accumulation in the high elevations will be around 1-2 inches.

Since there will be no snow on Wednesday, that means we will break the record for the latest first snowflakes in Rochester. The previous record was set in 1956.

Friday will be much of the same, with rain showers along the lakeshore and possible light snowfall inland. Temperatures will only get up to the low to mid-40s and wind will be coming from the north at 10-15 miles per hour.

The low-pressure system bringing us all the rain and snow the next few days will be centered off the coast of New England by Saturday, but unfortunately, it will still be bringing us some spotty showers for the first half of the weekend. Sunday will be drier and overall temperatures will be in the mid-40s both days.

In truth, this weather isn’t “unfortunate”. It’s much needed after the extended drought Western New York and the Northeast US in general has had.