With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror and Christmas just around the corner, it’s starting to look a bit like winter in New York.
While the sun shone brightly, it did little to warm the raw and cold air that blew through the city on Saturday.
For the first time this season, temperatures dropped below freezing at night and rose only slightly in the early morning hours. With highs expected to barely reach 40 degrees, this weekend is expected to be the coldest weekend in NYC – and much of the tri-state area – since early March.
“This will be about 10 degrees below average for this time of year,” the National Weather Service in New York said, noting that lows for the weekend will drop to the mid-20s. The colder than normal weather is expected to continue throughout the week, the agency added.
Clouds are expected to develop during Saturday afternoon and into the evening, with a chance of a few showers in the city.
Meanwhile, state residents are preparing for intense snowfall this weekend, in addition to frigid temperatures, which are also expected to be about 10 degrees below average for this time of year.
Several counties — including Wyoming, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, southern Erie, Oswego, Jefferson, Lewis and Allegany — were under storm warnings starting Friday due to lake effect. The advisory, issued by the National Weather Service in Buffalo, went into effect around 7 a.m. and won’t expire until Monday morning.
The flakes first started falling across the state on Friday, with forecasters predicting four to six feet of snow for Watertown and other areas east of Lake Ontario early next week. Those living along Lake Erie and south of Buffalo are also expected to be hit hard. Forecasters warned of 2 to 3 meters of snow in the region.
Lake effect snow forms when cold air moves over a body of water, in this case the Great Lakes, absorbing heat and moisture and then transferring these elements into the atmosphere. This causes air to rise and condense into clouds, which can result in narrow bands that can produce intense snowfall at rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour or more.
Lake Erie is currently about 50 degrees Celsius, “about 6 degrees above where we should be this time of year, which is why we’re seeing these severe lake impact events,” Erie County Public Works Commissioner William Geary said. “The outlook for the next two weeks into December is likely to see us see even more.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul had already declared a state of emergency for the targeted counties on Friday, and rapidly deteriorating conditions forced road closures along Interstate 90. Tandem and commercial vehicles were also banned on Interstate 86 in western New York and much of the U.S. Route 219.
Forecasters warned that travel would be “very difficult to impossible” for much of the weekend.
With News Wire services
