Winter Weather Update 11/15/18
Heavy Snow Is Falling In Some Areas, Dakota With An Updatehttps://new.wnynewsnow.com/2018/11/15/first-defense-winter-storm-advisories-and-warnings-through-friday-morning/?fbclid=IwAR1Km3a-F1RSRfQwHMsdSDOTuX7A2c5qjg-bAkGVuR6avWPeAZpzFFfN1Ag
Posted by WNY News Now on Thursday, November 15, 2018
JAMESTOWN – A messy 24 or so hours are in the cards for Western New York as a storm system moves through the Northeast.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties and areas to the south and east, for the potential for heavy snow. There is a Winter Weather Advisory for the western most counties of the region (Chautauqua, Erie and Niagara), including Erie, Crawford and Warren Counties in PA.
This system will start as a mixed bag of precipitation early this afternoon, with pockets of sleet and freezing rain. A changeover to all snow will occurring during the late night hours into Friday morning.
The big thing in this forecast is, how much sleet and freezing rain are we going to mix in? That has been the one variable that has complicated this forecast. If we get more sleet, than that tends to hold down overall snow accumulation. If we see less sleet, then the could be higher.
Models have been hitting to totals around a tenth of an inch however, that’s enough to slicken up roads throughout the evening. Use your winter driving skills and take it easy if you’re going out this afternoon or tonight.
As colder air works in, this messy precipitation will changeover to all snow before the system rolls out the northeast and leave us with a few lake effect rain and snow showers for Friday.
In terms of snow accumulations, the least amount of snow will be found in Chautauqua County, due to the presence of sleet and freezing rain early, where areas away from Lake Erie could see up to 3 to 6 inches. Areas right on the lake shoreline will see the least amount of snow due to slightly warmer temps there, keeping rain around longer.
Once you start to work out to the east in Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties, that’s where snow totals could reach up to a solid foot in some areas, as snow will be more prevalent out in that direction.
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