First Alert Weather: Lake snow to end the week, big cold next week

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — The main weather story over the next 24 hours will be a heavy band of lake effect snow coming off of Lake Erie.

A Yellow Alert is up for areas west of Rochester. This is where snow will be most persistent, and travel will be more problematic. This includes the Thruway between about Le Roy to Buffalo. Parts of the area, including Genesee County, may see 4-8" tonight and Thursday, with wind gusts to 40 mph blowing that snow around. Areas closer to Rochester will only see a coating to an inch or two tonight, and a coating to an inch or two tomorrow. The Finger Lakes region will see little to nothing out of this round.

Another cold front drops south on Friday, triggering another round of lake effect snow, this time off of Lake Ontario with a northwesterly wind. This next round will aim more at Rochester and Wayne County, where a shovelable snow is possible. Initial thinking is a general 1-3" of snow north of the Thruway, with 3-6" possible on Friday into Wayne County. It’ll be turning much colder, with highs dropping through the 20s on Friday.

The weekend: Saturday will be dry and quiet with some sun. Another system moving through on Sunday will bring mostly rain showers, but it may be cold enough at the surface to produce a little freezing rain or sleet early, especially south and east of Rochester. We may end Sunday with a few snow showers on Sunday, as colder air slowly oozes in, but no accumulation is expected. That will change next week, with another round of Lake Effect snow off of Lake Ontario a good possibility.

In addition to that, temperatures will drop into the single digits for lows, and teens for highs much of Monday and Tuesday. Wind chills may also drop below zero for a few hours early Tuesday.

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