First Alert Weather: Tracking a chilly wind and lake flakes most of the week

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The first full week of January will be a cold and flaky one. We’ll be under a persistent weather pattern, keeping cold Arctic air circulating across the Great Lakes. This will also keep the lake effect machine going, but generally light in nature with only minor accumulations for our area.

Temperatures Monday night will hover in the mid and upper teens, with a busy wind at times, making it feel more like the lower single digits as the kids are waiting for the bus. In fact, we’ll have very little fluctuation in temperatures, only topping out in the lower 20s on Tuesday. As mentioned, we’ll continue to see off and on lake flakes and some flurries, but expect less than 1” of snow Monday night, and less than 1” of snow on Tuesday. We may see a slight uptick in snow at times, but again impacts on roads should be fairly minor.

Wednesday may end up being the chilliest day of the week, not making it out of the teens, with a gusty wind making it feel more like zero for much of the day. Again, we’ll see some periods of lake flurries and flakes, but expect little accumulation. We may see a little more moisture working in late Wednesday into Thursday, which could up our snowfall slightly, but still expect just another inch or two of accumulation.

Looking ahead to the weekend – we’re watching the potential for a coastal low, which may bring another widespread snow to areas well to our south, including the big cities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, but at this point, we expect little impact locally. As far as the Bills game is concerned on Sunday, expect temperatures in the upper 20s to near 30, with the possibility of a few lake flakes, but no major impact.