Syracuse, N.Y. – Get ready for a major weather change and disruption to start the week in Central New York. Increasing wind will potentially bring down tree branches and produce power outages as cold air rushes into the area behind a powerful cold front. Heavy lake effect snow is firing up early this evening to the east of Lake Ontario before dropping south to Syracuse with potential whiteout conditions and significant blowing and drifting snow in places.
Here’s the map of wind alerts from Monday morning. This shows Wind Advisories for all of Central New York until 7 PM Tuesday. Winds will gust as high as 55 MPH in higher elevations and lakeshore areas, especially Monday evening from 5 PM until 1 AM.
The second map and set of weather alerts are for winter weather and snowfall. A combination of high wind and heavy snowfall will produce whiteout conditions at times for some locations, along with blowing and drifting snowfall. The heaviest of snow will fall in Oswego and Oneida counties, with much less in the Finger Lakes.
Here’s a map showing the Winter Storm Warnings start at 4 PM for Oswego County and 7 PM for Onondaga and several other counties until 7 AM Wednesday.
Snowfall accumulation starts first in northern and northeastern Oswego County, either after sunset, late afternoon, or early evening on Monday. After slamming the Tug Hill for the evening and overnight, the primary focus for heavy lake effect snow Tuesday morning and midday will be southeast of Lake Ontario, the Syracuse area. Note that the snow will be much lighter for areas south of Wayne County in the Finger Lakes…