Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Enjoy temperatures in the 20's across Western New York, because that's about as good as it gets over the course of the next week or so.
"That's about as warm as it's probably going to be for the better part of a week across Western New York," says AccuWeather meteorologist Joe Lundberg.
"It gets even colder for the weekend," says Lundberg, with high temperatures Saturday and Sunday expected to be only in the teens with low temperatures in the single digits.
As cold as it will feel in Western New York, it pales in comparison with what they're dealing with in the western portion of the Great Lakes and midwest.
Due in part to a shift in the polar vortex, dangerously low temperatures have been recorded across the northern tier of the U.S., and some locations haven't been above zero for more than two days.
Many of the locations reporting the harshest cold, such as International Falls, Minnesota, where the temperature hit -36 F on Monday morning, aren't strangers to such extreme low readings at this time of year. In fact, despite the widespread blast of Arctic air sending temperatures tumbling well into the 20s and 30s below zero, there were not many new daily records set.
Lake Erie has been mainly ice-free until this past weekend when a dramatic increase in ice cover was noted Sunday.
As a result of the frigid air, the ice coverage on Lake Erie increased substantially. AccuWeather Broadcast Meteorologist Geoff Cornish said that the coverage went from 8% to 43% from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. The ice coverage for the lake was at 45.9% as of Monday morning.
"We're in a midst of a period of rapid, rapid ice growth on Lake Erie, and it is quickly filling in from all angles," Cornish said.
Overall ice coverage for the entirety of the Great Lakes is 18.7%, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
Graph shows the dramatic increase in Lake Erie Ice cover
While the increased ice cover represents the frigid cold we're about to experience, less open water also begins to diminish the overall impact lake effect snow can have on the Western New York region.
