Lake effect flurries and occasional bands of light snow showers are likely today. Snow accumulation locally will be fairly light and not much more than a dusting in most spots. Temperatures will remain cold with daytime highs topping out at around 30°. By tonight, our winds will shift, becoming more westerly and bringing an end to the lake effect.
The nickel-and-dime snow chances return Friday night as another wave travels over the Great Lakes region Friday night into Saturday morning. Like today, local accumulation will be inconsequential. Temperatures across the area will moderate somewhat but remain colder than normal.
A clipper is expected to track across the region late Saturday into early Sunday, which could potentially bring enough snow to cause some travel problems in our area.
While it’s way too soon to get specific with snow amounts, current projections keep the heaviest snow from this system along and south of I-70. Still, we’re looking at somewhere in the range of two to three inches of new snow in our area, should the current tracking hold.
Confidence is high that temperatures will be cold enough that this will be all high-ratio snow on the order of 15:1 or even higher. (Normally, snow is generally calculated on a 10:1 ratio.) What this means is light, fluffy snow as opposed to heavy, wet snow. This supports probabilities of around three inches of snow greater than 50% with our current data.
This is only Thursday, and any shift north or south this takes would make a big difference in the amount of snow we would receive. The bottom line is that if you have travel plans for Sunday, stay up to date with the latest information. You may have to make some adjustments.
