First Alert Weather: Lake flakes and bitter air to end the week

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — We’re now solidly in the freezer, with Arctic air settling in over the region.

High pressure remains in place through the start of the weekend, but with the cold air in place, we’ll see pesky light lake effect snow persisting. Most of the snow will fall within a few miles of the Lake Ontario shoreline, thanks to a light wind. The air is very dry, so any snow that accumulates should just be nuisance amounts, with less than 1" for most spots. The bigger weather story will be the cold air. Temperatures dropped into the lower teens on Thursday, and we’ll continue to plunge into the lower single digits, even some spots below zero away from Lake Ontario. Even a light wind will knock our wind chills below zero.

Highs on Friday won’t do much better, with temperatures hovering near 10. We may have the coldest air since 2018 Saturday morning, with lows dipping well below zero. The forecast low is -6, and the record low for Saturday is -9. So, we’re not forecasting a record low right now, but it’s not out of the question. A light wind will drop our wind chills as low as -10 to -20, with the coldest readings south of the Thruway.

Saturday will feature plenty of sunshine, and temperatures rebound back into the 20s by the afternoon thanks to a southerly wind. Sunday will also hold in the mid-20s, but we’ll see more clouds and some scattered snow showers. The next weather maker we’re watching is early next week. A clipper moving through the Great Lakes will bring some snow showers and light snow into Western New York Monday night into Tuesday, with some accumulation possible. At this point, this will not be a major snowfall, but it’ll freshen up our snowpack just a bit. Following that, we’ll have to deal with another blast of Arctic air, as temperatures drop into the teens for highs and near zero for lows by Wednesday and Thursday.

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