Much colder air is now spreading across the eastern Great Lakes on strong, gusty westerly winds. High wind warnings and advisories continue for a large part of New York State and Pennsylvania.
In addition to the high winds, scattered snow showers and a few squalls continue to move across the region. Some of the squalls are producing local white-out conditions.
Later this afternoon and into this evening, the winds will diminish a bit, and this will allow stronger lake effect snow bands to begin to organize to the lee of the lakes. Specifically, a heavy band is expected to develop across western New York, south of the Buffalo area. Also, some stronger bands could develop across northeastern Ohio to the northeast of Cleveland, and extend eastward into northwestern Pennsylvania. Snow within these bands could be very heavy.
Winds will continue to be westerly through the evening. During the overnight hours, a weak trough of low pressure will slide southward across the eastern lakes, and this will turn the winds to the west-northwest or northwest after midnight. The heavier snow bands should settle southward allowing some of the heavier snow to travel inland.
Snow accumulations through tonight could be significant across the snow belt areas where squalls persist. Outside of these areas, scattered snow showers could put down a coating to an inch or two. Any areas that see snow accumulation could see blowing snow with the strong winds.
On Friday, the lake effect snow will continue. Additional accumulation is likely across the snow belt areas. By late in the day, the snow showers will begin to shift to the east as winds turn to the southwest. This will be in response to a clipper that will be moving into the Great Lakes late Friday and Friday night.
On Saturday, snow associated with the clipper will overspread the region from west to east. The snow will continue into Saturday night as the clipper moves through. This should be a fairly minor event with most locations picking up 1 to 3 inches of new snow.
On Sunday, the flow will once again turn northwesterly behind the departing clipper, allowing for another period of lake effect snow downwind of the lakes.
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