First Alert Weather: Cold, windy, and lake effect snow into the weekend

ROCHESTER. N.Y. The lake effect snow pattern began for Western New York yesterday, but Rochester did not see any of those fast moving flakes stick. Today will be different (though we still won’t get much). A low pressure system passing to our south is going to jumble the wind direction a bit, which is going to pull the snow band currently affecting the Oswego area down into the Rochester area. This will occur in the late morning – afternoon timeframe, and the snow band should push south into the Southern Tier by the evening commute. Temperature wise, it’ll be cold today, with high temperatures in the high 20s to low 30s, but wind gusts of up to 30 MPH will make it feel more like the mid to high teens.

This cold, windy, and lake effect snowy pattern continues through the weekend. After the wind shift today brings that snow band down south, it’ll initiate more stringy snow bands coming off the lake that will continue some accumulation into Saturday morning. By Saturday noon, everyone will be seeing some passing snow showers, and then Saturday evening the snow will coalesce back into a band hugging the shoreline… That continues until late Sunday morning, when the snow will begin to drift back south again.

By Sunday morning, Rochester will have about 3-6 inches of snow, the Finger Lakes will have less at around 1-3 inches, and the heaviest accumulations will be in northeastern Wayne County where up to a foot of snow is possible.

A widespread snow system passes well to our south on Monday, although we could still see some flurries off of it’s northern edge. Then, winds return to that northwesterly flow, meaning we’ll be getting some more lake effect snow Tuesday through Thursday. Temperatures will continue to drop, with high temperatures around 20 degrees by late next week. In fact, the entire eastern half of the U.S. will be seeing that cold air thanks to the polar vortex taking a dip all the way down to the southeast.

Stay tuned to News10 NBC for all your First Alert Weather updates throughout this chilly weekend!