Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - We made it through midweek and an arctic blast of air and round of lake effect snow across all of Western New York.
Arctic air will remain in place through today, along with dangerously cold wind chills through this morning. Temperatures will then moderate some through the rest of the week, National Weather Service forecasters say.
Lake Effect Snow Warnings have been cancelled and the Cold Weather Advisories for all of WNY have been allowed to expire.
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"We are quite cold," NWS meteorologist Phillip Pandolfo tells WBEN early Wednesday. "At the airport, we actually dropped to an air temperature of around -3 earlier this morning." Pandolfo notes the airport temperature has not been below zero since February 1, 2019.
The bitter cold temps Wednesday morning will be the coldest we'll see for the time being and things will improve from here.
"We have another cold day on tap, highs are really only going to be in the teens around the Buffalo metro area," Pandolfo says. "The wind chills will be a little bit better than they were yesterday."
Let the moderation begin!
The 'warmer' temperatures will be by comparison, however, and will remain lower than normal for this time of year. "We'll be looking at temperatures warming into the 20's for Thursday and Friday. The weekend we'll look a little bit better," Pandolfo adds. "We'll start to warm a little bit closer to the freezing mark, and that will extend into next week as well."
Snow Totals
The lake effect snow that impacted most of the region through late Tuesday continues to weaken and disappear.
Snow totals across parts of the area are impressive, however.
"Our current highest total off this Lake Erie band in Erie County, we had a report of 21.6 inches in Eden," Pandolfo says. At the airport, 4.2 inches fell officially, while in the City of Buffalo tallied 6 inches as of Tuesday night. Across the Buffalo southtowns, snow totals were measuring in at about a foot to a foot and a half, Pandolfo notes.
Lake Erie Ice
The frigid temperatures have certainly helped ice over Lake Erie and perhaps somewhat limiting the amount of future lake effect snow.
"Lake Erie has not entirely frozen over yet, although this cold has certainly done a number on the amount of ice out on the lake," Pandolfo says. "As of just yesterday, Lake Erie is being reported about 40% covered with ice." That coverage is likely to continue to grow through this week.
But, Pandolfo cautions, "Still plenty of open water out on the lake to support lake effect."
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