Western New York has managed to miss much of its typical wintry weather. But with the start of 2016, winter is back with lake effect snow and chilly temperatures.
Snow accumulations will not come all at once, but over a period of 2-3 days starting Thursday morning and lasting through Saturday. The lake effect snow band will drift to downtown Buffalo and back south from Friday morning into the afternoon and settle back across the Southern-Tier this evening.
The band shifts into the city between 7-11am. Folks living in and around the metro, especially south Buffalo and southern suburbs can expect a few inches of snow, with higher amounts in some of the more intense bands of snow. The band will shift and stay south around noon.
Can't rule out driving through a good squall or two at times in the S.Tier. But the lack of moisture aloft will keep this lake effect event a very modest but welcomed event for snow and ski enthusiasts. Overall, expect the highest accumulations to be on the hill-tops on the Chautauqua Ridge and Southern Erie hills, where 6-8" of snow will fall by Saturday morning.
The National Weather Service has issued a Lake Effect Snow Advisory for Southern Erie, Wyoming, Chautauqua & Cattaraugus Counties until Saturday at noon. Northern Erie and Genesee counties are under a Lake Effect Snow Advisory until 1pm Friday afternoon.
If we don't pick up some measurable snowfall at the Buffalo Airport by the end of the year, it will go down in the record books as Buffalo's least snowiest December.
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