Cold, lake effect highlight winter’s arrival

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) – Winter officially arrived at 4:21 am Saturday and Mother Nature is going to remind us what season it is this weekend. Details below…

Coldest air in almost a year headed our way

After bringing us some steady snow Friday, low pressure is moving east from Pennsylvania out into the Atlantic Ocean. We will feel a change as a strengthening north-northwest wind in the wake of this storm taps into arctic air that is building in Central and Eastern Canada. That’s what delivers the coldest air we’ve seen since January.

Any snow with the cold this weekend?

Yes, lake effect snow continues for some on Saturday. The north-northwest winds target areas from Syracuse back across the Finger Lakes.

Where the lake effect is most persistent to start the weekend there could be another 1 to 3 inches during the day Saturday. The most likely areas for this to happen would be over Wayne, Cayuga, Seneca, Tompkins, Cortland and Onondaga counties.

Cold for everyone

Even in areas that aren’t seeing much snow it will be cold.  Wind chills look to be in the single digits much of the day Saturday in Syracuse and outlying areas could be below zero. If you are out and about this weekend doing your last-minute holiday shopping, make sure you have the mid-winter gear on.

Enough snow to provide a White Christmas?

Our chances are looking good! While there won’t be a lot of snow any one day, the data we look at seems to point toward enough snowfall to lead to a snow cover of several inches by the end of the weekend.

The official definition of a “White Christmas” from the National Weather Service is an inch or more of snow on the ground on Christmas Day. So, all we need is an inch of snow!

The best part is that the temperatures over the weekend through Monday stay cold enough to keep the snow from melting too quickly. That increases our chances of snow on the ground come Christmas morning!

At this point (about 5 days out), we now think there’s a 90% chance that there’ll be at least 1 inch of snow on the ground at the Syracuse airport this Christmas morning.

Click here for the latest 7-day forecast.

Powered by News Channel 9.