How much snow will upstate NY get this week? Winter weather on the way

On By Littum

Break out the winter gear — accumulating snow could arrive south of Rochester later this week, according to National Weather Service in Buffalo.

With a large, slow-moving storm expected to move across the Great Lakes later this week, rain is expected to dampen the region Wednesday and Thursday before potentially changing to snow in some areas Thursday night into Friday, according to the Weather Service. Higher terrain areas south of Rochester — including the Bristol Hills area and the Southern Tier — could see its first coating of measurable snow, Weather Service Meteorologist Bob Hamilton said.

“It’s long overdue,” he said.

Rochester is not currently expected to see accumulating snow, he said, but could see some flakes fly into the air overnight, Thursday into Friday. The storm, he warned, is still several days out, so the forecast could change, as it already has.

How much snow falls in New York?

Late last week, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center predicted a powerful storm, predicted to sweep northeast, bringing cold temperatures and potentially some lake effect snow to upstate New York later this week.

Currently, the Weather Service is predicting mostly rain during that time frame for the usual lake-effect snow patches south of Lake Ontario, including in Syracuse. Buffalo could see some flakes flying Thursday through Sunday, according to the forecast.

Parts of the Adirondacks could see a few inches of snow Thursday through Friday, Weather Service Meteorologist Steve Welch said, “but there’s still so much uncertainty” with the storm system, which is moving, developing and continuing to change the forecast.

It’s been a pretty mild November in New York so far. In e.g. Rochester this week has an expected normal high in the mid-40s, and daily highs this month to date have ranged from 46 degrees on November 12th and 13th to a record high of 81 degrees on November 5th. highs are expected to return to closer to normal — in the low to mid-40s, he said.