First Alert Weather: Back to sunshine and Spring-like weather Thursday

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – As promised, winter made a return to western New York on Wednesday with off and on snow showers, bursts of snow and a chill to the air. If you’re not a fan of this, you’ll like what’s headed our way Thursday. High pressure building in will clear our sky Wednesday night, leading to plenty of sunshine on Thursday. It’ll be a chilly start to the day in the mid 20s, but we’ll warm quickly into the mid to upper 40s to near 50 degrees by Thursday afternoon. We’ll see a few more clouds building in with the slight chance of a late evening shower, but overall nice weather prevails on Thursday.

Friday will see a return to more clouds and some rain showers again. Then our forecast gets “iffy” for the weekend. We’ll be tracking an area of low pressure moving in. Meanwhile, a nearly stationary front will separate warm, spring-like temperatures to our south, from much colder, winter-like air to our north. And that boundary will be very nearby. We could be talking about the difference between 70 degrees in the Southern Tier, and freezing near Lake Ontario. This will play a big role in what type of precipitation we see. Those on the warmer side of the front will see just rain, with no issues. Meanwhile, those north of the front will be much colder, with the chance for some freezing rain at times on Saturday. At this point, we’re highlighting areas near Lake Ontario for the best chance for seeing some icing, with those south getting rain and no issues. That being said, this is a very fickle forecast, and a shift north or south of just a few miles will make a world of difference in the forecast. Bottom line: we’re monitoring the risk for freezing rain Saturday.

We’ll warm again on Sunday back through the 40s, meaning it should be plenty mild enough for anything to change back over to rain showers. Monday will also see scattered showers, but temperatures will fall later in the day. High pressure builds in on Tuesday, which is good news for the Red Wings home opener, as we should see dry weather and sunshine. The bad news is that we’ll likely stay in the 30s! Far from the 50 degree guarantee. Stay tuned!