An Early Winter Tale

Written by: Brian Neudorff

A developing nor'easter that will move through New England and into Quebec Tuesday night and Wednesday will bring the region its first taste of winter. This storm will draw in the coldest air we have seen so far this season, along with strong blustery winds gusting 35 to 40 mph and there will even be snow for some of us here in western and central New York. Many of us here in Monroe county west over to Buffalo and north of the I-90 thruway will experience rain, feel the cold blustery winds and even get a few snowflakes mixing in with the rain. There might be a few locations that get a coating on some grassy surfaces but like most early season snows, the focus will be on the higher elevations of the Southern Tier & Finger Lakes and in the traditional snowbelts off the eastern and southeastern shores of Lake Ontario. This storm will also drop heavy snow east of I-81.

Winter storm warnings have already been issued for many counties including Jefferson, Lewis & Oswego, where a foot or more of heavy wet snow could fall along the Tug Hill Plateau. Some of this snow will be a combination of nor'easter induced snow and lake effect snow. Some of that lake effect snow could also fall in eastern and northeastern Wayne county as well as in the Bristol Hills. These amounts could range from 2 to 4 inches. Counties off the eastern shores of Lake Erie could pick up their first significant lake effect snow with Lake Effect snow advisories in effect for Chautauqua & Cattaraugus.

For the rest of us, as mentioned above most of us will deal with cold temperatures, strong blustery winds, rain showers mixing with snow and there could be a time or two where we get some light snow or flurries but we will just have to wait a little longer for our first big snow of the season.