First Alert Weather: Rochester misses the big snow, but cashes in on lake effect this week

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — If you’re a winter lover, there are some things to love this week, and some to hate. 2022 has featured a return to winter, but we’ll miss out on the bigger, area-wide snows this week.

Clouds will increase tonight, and a southerly wind will pick up. This will actually allow our temperatures to remain steady or slowly rise after midnight. Wednesday starts off dry with some sun, but a strong cold front plowing through during the afternoon will drop our temperatures from the 40s into the 30s with rain and snow showers mixed, changing over to snow showers. Expect little/no accumulation Wednesday afternoon from this, but lake effect snow will get organized as the winds align out of the west/southwest, and temperatures drop. A plume of lake effect snow will get going off of Lake Erie, focusing in on the Thruway, and areas from Buffalo to Batavia. Travel west from Rochester to Buffalo along the Thruway will be extremely difficult Thursday morning. If that band can stretch into Monroe County and Rochester, we may have a few issues on roads for our Thursday morning commute. A Yellow Alert is up for the potential for tricky travel, especially late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

Lake effect snow winds down later Thursday as the winds shift. A storm sliding south of us will bring another area-wide snow to the big cities along the east coast, but it’ll be a miss for us. That being said, cold air will filter back in, and lake effect snow will get going off of a northwesterly wind this time. That means Lake Ontario will produce some snow south and east of the lake, including the Rochester area. At this point, accumulations aren’t too impressive but may impact roads on Friday.

The weekend: Saturday will be a quiet and dry day, with yet another storm system moving in on Sunday. This will bring rain showers, possibly starting off as some freezing rain early with temperatures hovering near the freezing point. A cold front will move in late on Sunday, bringing another wintry blast of colder air, and another round of lake effect snow off of Lake Ontario next Monday. We may also be dealing with the coldest air of the season by Monday or Tuesday of next week. So, while we’re missing out on the bigger area-wide snowfalls, in typical fashion, the Great Lakes are helping us out in the snowfall department.

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