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Tuesday, January 17

Big Winds & Changes Occur Tonight



Written by John DiPasquale:


Steady rains will end this afternoon, & it will be mild with temperatures peaking between the mid 40s to low 50s.


Later this evening, as a strengthening storm zips by to our north & brings a strong cold front through during the mid to late evening. Temperatures will plummet out of the 40s & low 50s & back to around 20 by dawn tomorrow with winds becoming sustained between 25 & 45 mph, & some gusts could exceed 55 or even 60 mph!! If this in fact occurs, some damage & scattered power outages are likely. Bring in any loose items around the house if you can, otherwise you just might lose them, especially if they are exposed to a west/northwest facing field. Winds will slowly settle later Wednesday morning & afternoon. Snow should not be much of an issue late tonight into Wednesday, but there will likely be some flurries & a few squalls around late tonight through early Wednesday afternoon, with a coating to an inch or two possible. A bit more than that will likely fall in Wyoming County & also across portions of CNY, but overall snow will not be a big deal behind this storm. Another important thing to mention besides the wind later tonight into Wednesday is the MUCH colder air, which will cause the standing water from today's rain & snow melt to refreeze. So untreated surfaces will turn into skating rinks, be mindful of that when heading out late tonight & tomorrow.


The next chance of an area wide snow will be later Thursday into Thursday night when a clipper dives through. At this time, it appears there could be an inch or two with that system, with a little lake snow to follow Thursday night & early Friday. Again, though, the snow should not be that significant. However, some new information is suggesting the potential of a more significant snowfall later Friday night into Saturday across WNY. A developing storm looks like it's going to pass by to the south, but possibly be close enough to produce some decent isentropic lift snow. We may pick up at least 3 or 4 inches with that system to kick off the weekend. Temperatures will also moderate over the weekend out of the teens & low 20s Friday back into the upper 20s & mid 30s Saturday & Sunday, respectively. Stay tuned.


Have a great day everyone!


13 comments:

  1. High winds if they gust to 60 mph that is concerning for trees and power lines coming down? Also any snow in the morning would make the ride awful with the winds and surfaces freezing over?

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  2. Crossing fingers for some snow by Saturday! My son's hockey team has a "holiday" party at a sledding hill this weekend, and 15 8 year old boys confined to a small lodge with no snow to sled on, is a recipe for disaster!!

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  3. I am terrified of high winds. We had a wind storm several years ago that took down three huge trees in our back yard, just missing crashing into our neighbors house. Power was out in our neighborhood for days. Ever since then, I freak out when we have high wind warnings. A couple of years ago I was watching Scott's weather forecast during a high wind event and he literally calmed me down through the TV by explaining it and saying it wouldn't be too bad. Since then, he's been my favorite local met because he can be trusted not to hype things for ratings. Love him :)

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  4. I noticed in the broadcast a change in thinking for temps for weekend and next week does it not look like the warm up will be that much now?

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  5. Models have been fighting the warm up and continue to do so. However, it wouldn't surprise me if it does warm up down the road towards the end of January. Only time will tell, but so far, the models have been trying to keep us semi-content!

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  6. Why the severe thunderstorm warning? Did anyone actually see any lightning or hear thunder when the front came through? I didn't. In fact the Mycast lightning detector app on my droid, which is usually very accurate, showed no lightning anywhere in the state let alone associated with the front.

    Andy

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  7. No thunder and lightning here. It is crazy windy though...and that's saying something because it is ALWAYS windy here it seems!

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  8. Lost our gazebo in Greece :(

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  9. Severe thunderstorm does not always mean lightning. In this time it is just because of the wind.

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  10. Whats up with this site? The weather page still has a High Wind Warning in effect. Is channel 8 accurate or what?

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  11. Charles I find it odd that they would use the term "severe thunderstorm," even if there is no thunderstorm. I get the fact that the winds were sudden and severe, but don't see why it would be classified as a thunderstorm. Perhaps a squall warning or something would have made more sense.

    Weather 8 team, this new site is terrible on my android. I get ads running through the middle of my screen over the top of text. Is anything being done to fix this or is this just how it's going to work with the redesigned site?

    Andy

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  12. Yes, I see the continuation of the High Wind Warning on our site, when it should not be up there as it expired a long while ago. We are trying to take care of this problem. Hopefully will be fixed very soon! Definitely some bugs with the new website with regards to the watches & warnings & ads running over the texts. Apologize for the inconveniences & problems that this has caused but again the bugs are being worked out.

    With regards to the weather, after the insane winds last night, especially last evening, when the airport in Rochester officially recorded a 72 mph wind gust @ 8:23PM, winds have settled a great deal as expected today. Yes, it is still brisk, but at least the winds are no longer causing damage & knocking out power. Today's big story is the much colder temperatures! Temperatures have dropped 30 degrees from early last evening when we were in the low 50s briefly just ahead of the cold front. We had a little lake snow today, but not much as expected.
    Tonight will be cold & quiet, but a bit more snow should work in tomorrow afternoon with some more wind & somewhat milder temperatures too. Highs tomorrow should get well into the 20s to around 30 with a coating to an inch or two of snow by 5 or 6 o'clock. Another dusting to an inch or so will fall tomorrow night before the clipper slides out, & is replaced by some more cold air tomorrow night into Friday.

    Later Friday night into Saturday, the energy & storm slamming the Pacific Northwest will pass by to the south & likely create a period of snow. At this time, it appears that a 1 to 4" or 2 to 5" snowfall may occur, but of course the exact track this storm takes will dictate how much we receive Friday night & Saturday. If the storm moves further south, then we would pick up very little snow, but if it moves a bit further north then a more significant snowfall would occur here in WNY. Stay tuned through the remainder of the week & we will keep you posted. Temperatures will be very cold Friday teens & low 20s for highs, but over the weekend we should warm well into the 20s Saturday, & into the 30s come Sunday. Next week could be busy, but precipitation type is the big question for one, maybe two storm systems next week. We'll see...

    Have a great day WNY!

    News 8
    Meteorologist (AMS Seal)
    John DiPasquale

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  13. There have been some questions about the new site. Unfortunately, we have virtually NO control as to how the site is formatted or how it looks on mobile devices. We are owned by a big company in Texas. We are working out the kinks with regard to local content and doing our best. I'm sorry some are disappointed but we're trying hard to make it better. In many ways it is!

    Scott

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