The likelihood of snow at Central New York schools is increasing

SYRACUSE, NY – Snow will increase in Central New York for the rest of this Thursday, increasing the likelihood of school delays or closures tomorrow. Hundreds of teachers and thousands of their students tune in to CNYcentral for the latest radar and weather forecasts that promise to sleep on the last day of the school week.

Start using your superstitions today to hedge the odds up or perhaps down. However, what this meteorologist is observing is an increase in snow amounts and snow cover throughout the day/evening. After a mostly calm morning, conditions won’t be quite as nice this evening. In fact, one of the harshest weather events this week will occur this evening. Following a second round of intense but brief snowfall with poor visibility and a rapid but minor snow accumulation in the late afternoon, watch for gusty winds in excess of 40 mph and steady lake effect snow southeast of Lake Ontario across Central New York.

School district administrators will sound an early alarm and tune in to NBC3 at 4 a.m. and CBS5 at 5 a.m. to see how much snow has fallen, what road conditions are like in their area, and how much worse snow is in store for the day. As of 11 a.m. Thursday, I expect the snowfall to taper off to severe weather in the evening/midnight hours and late into the night. Becoming brighter after a drop of 2-4 inches, mostly around 4 a.m., for Syracuse and many lower elevations, with 4-6 inches for higher elevations south and southeast of Syracuse and Tug Hill. Sustained breezy winds of up to 30 mph will bring blowing and blowing snow, reducing visibility and producing freezing wind chills into the low teens. Additionally, the air will become colder with temperatures dropping into the upper teens to mid 20s, resulting in snowy and icy roads.

Here’s my latest snow project for Central New York from noon Thursday to 7 a.m. Friday. The heaviest snowfall will be at higher elevations, 6-9 inches, but much smaller amounts at lower elevations near Lake Ontario and some parts of the Finger Lakes region, 1-3 inches.

And as I look further into the future, I see that it will snow again later on Friday. Light, isolated snow showers and severe weather will occur southeast of Lake Ontario for much of Friday. This will result in minor snow accumulations during the school day, Track 1″. The northwesterly wind flow will shift and cause snow bands to shift later in the afternoon. Heavier lake snow will begin Friday evening north northeast of Onondaga County into Oswego and Oneida Counties. Even if normal school operations take place during the day, after school activities in the areas up there could be at risk.

Here is my forecast for additional snow Friday through 7 a.m. Friday night. Note very little for Onondaga County, Gauge 1″. Many places north show 1-6″, but for Tug Hill it shows as much as 6-12″.

Factoring in the road impact of central New York’s wintry weather, we will see a change this evening from wet or muddy roads during midday and early afternoon to fairly crumbly conditions for much of this evening. Then there will be a slow improvement on Friday morning. It should be clear across much of the area later Friday afternoon, although roads to the north will be covered in snow again by late morning.

For the latest updates and to track the snow on the live local radar, click HERE.