First Alert Weather: Rain and snow on Thursday; Possible significant storm this weekend

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Temperatures rose from 25 degrees at 9 p.m. last night to 40 degrees early on Thursday morning, being accompanied by rain and wind ahead of a cold front.

Once that cold front passes, the wind will continue with gusts up to 35 MPH, and snow showers will persist into the night. Friday will feature lake effect snow southeast of the lakes, with mainly minor accumulations for most but locally heavy accumulation in northeastern parts of Wayne County.

We continue to track a potentially significant storm system for this weekend. There is still a good amount of uncertainty on just what kind of precipitation we’ll get, when, and how much.

This is due to the storm track relying on the exact location of the jet stream; a little bit north or west could mean a mix of rain and snow, a little bit south or east could mean all snow. Freezing rain and sleet will be in between the two.

As of right now, it’s looking like we’ll mostly be getting snow, with the heaviest accumulations on Sunday. We’re waiting to see what the latest observations and model guidance will suggest, and we may issue a Yellow Alert, so stay tuned.

What is certain is that this will be one ugly weekend. Although of course, that depends on your definition of ugly. What is also certain is that after this weekend, temperatures will take a giant dip down into the teens, with lake effect snow for the first half of next week. Make sure to bundle up!