Syracuse, N.Y. — The new year is picking up where the old one left off, with waves of lake effect snow hitting parts of Upstate New York today and through the weekend.
More than a foot of snow is expected today in northern Onondaga and southern Oswego counties. Three feet or more could fall in a small pocket of Oswego County just off Lake Ontario, and the Buffalo area could see a foot of fresh snow.
Syracuse’s northern suburbs, from Clay north to Brewerton, could get 12 to 18 inches of snow today and early Saturday, the National Weather Service said. The city of Syracuse is expected to get just 2 to 3 inches.
In Oswego County, snow could fall at a blinding rate of 3 to 5 inches per hour, the weather service said.
Winter storm warnings and lake effect snow warnings are in effect for all or part of nine Upstate counties until Saturday morning. The warnings urge drivers to stay off the roads if possible.
“Travel will be very difficult to nearly impossible with near-zero visibility and deep snow cover on roads,” the weather service said. “If you must travel, be prepared for severe winter driving conditions and the possibility of becoming stranded.”
The first wave of lake effect snow earlier this week, driven by northwest winds, produced record-breaking snowfall in the Syracuse area. The weather service recorded 24.2 inches of snow on Monday, the second-snowiest day since records began 123 years ago.
Syracuse has had more than 6 feet of snow so far this season.
Oswego County largely escaped that first storm, but as the winds have shifted to the west, the county is now in the bull’s-eye of the storm.
Oswego, Jefferson and Lewis counties can get more snow from lake effect storms than Syracuse because when winds come from the west, they whip down the entire length of Lake Ontario. That means they pick up more moisture to drop on the Tug Hill plateau than the northwest winds that cut across the width of the lake and drop snow on Syracuse.
