Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Albany, NY
Issued by NWS Albany, NY
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969 FXUS61 KALY 120654 AFDALY AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION National Weather Service Albany NY 154 AM EST Wed Nov 12 2025 .SYNOPSIS... Today through Friday will feature continued chilly weather and chances for lake effect snow showers. Up to a few inches of snow will be possible across the southern Adirondacks, Mohawk Valley, northern Catskills, and southern Greens through the next few days. We get a brief period of drier weather Friday night and Saturday, but another storm system with a wintry mix changing to plain rain is expected Saturday night and Sunday. && .SHORT TERM /THROUGH FRIDAY/... Key Messages: - High confidence for below normal temps and accumulating lake effect snow across the western Adirondacks/western Mohawk Valley into tonight. Discussion: As of 1:55 AM EDT...GOES 16 WV imagery shows our region remaining under persistent broad upper troughing aloft, as has been the case for the past few days now. An series of embedded shortwaves can also be seen to our west over/south of the Great Lakes. Ahead of one of these shortwaves, sfc pressure trough and weak mid-level warm advection is leading to a band of snow showers as seen on radar. These snow showers should move into our region from the west in a couple hours, and exit to the east towards the end of the AM commute. Snowfall amounts generally look quite light, with a dusting to a half inch at most outside of the southern ADKs. A few half inch to 1 inch amounts may be possible across the northern Berkshires and southern Greens, however, where there will be some upslope enhancement. While these amounts will remain well below advisory criteria, a few slick spots will be possible where any snow accumulates this morning. Otherwise, we are seeing widespread cloud cover across the region, which has kept temperatures a few to several degrees warmer than NBM guidance. Temperatures probably won`t fall more than a couple degrees between now and sunrise, so overnight lows will be in the mid 20s for the ADKs to mid 30s for the lower elevation areas. Once snow showers end this morning, there may be a brief dry period, but lake effect snow showers pick up again this afternoon into the evening for the southern ADKs and western Mohawk Valley as yet another upper disturbance and associated sfc low are expected to track north of Lake Ontario. Best chance for snow in these areas looks to be this evening, when a few additional inches of snow will be possible. We held off on any additional advisories for now, but can`t totally rule out a few 3-4" reports across portions of northern Herkimer County. Today will be another day with below- normal temperatures, although it will be warmer than yesterday. Highs will be in the 30s for the high terrain to 40s for the valleys. Therefore, valley areas could see a rain/snow mix or plain rain with any lake effect precip this afternoon. Today will also be breezy with some wind gusts 15-20 kt this afternoon. Tonight and Thursday...Behind this second disturbance, a longer fetch of low-levle NW flow develops over the Great Lakes into our region. Guidance is in good agreement on a multi-lake connection developing. The resulting lake effect band looks to drop south of the Mohawk Valley and be oriented primarily over the Schoharie Valley/Catskills, possibly reaching into the Mid Hudson Valley and even southwestern New England late tonight into Thursday. The Schoharie Valley/Catskills could see up to a couple inches of snow with this band, but downsloping into the Hudson Valley should prevent much accumulation further east/southeast. NBM guidance did not seem to be handling this band well, so blended in more RGEM/NAM guidance to increase PoPs/QPF under the band. Lows tonight will be mainly in the 20s to 30s with fairly widespread cloud cover again. Highs Thursday will be a degree or two warmer than today`s highs. Once again, valley areas will therefore see rain or a rain/snow mix with any lake effect precip rather than all snow. Thursday will also likely feature wind gusts of 15 to 25 kt in the afternoon. Thursday night and Friday...Additional lake effect snow showers continue, but flow trajectories veer slightly more to the north Friday, and sfc high pressure building into the Great Lakes will disrupt the band. So, additional snow amounts look to be minor Thursday night into Friday. Lows Thursday night will be in the 20s, with 30s to 40s once again Friday. && .LONG TERM /FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY/... Key Messages: - High confidence in below normal temps continuing through the long term period. - An approaching storm system could bring rain and/or a wintry mix Saturday night into Sunday. There is a 30-60% chance of freezing rain across the southern Adirondacks and southern Green Mountains. Discussion: Friday night and Saturday...Upper ridging amplifies over the Great Lakes, while sfc high pressure slides overhead from the west. This will put an end to any lake effect precip, so we will see dry conditions. With more clearing and favorable radiational cooling conditions, lows drop into the 10s and 20s Friday night. Temperatures may end up below the current forecast for areas that have snow on the ground from the lake effect over the next few days. Temperatures Saturday will remain similar to those from the previous few days. Saturday night through Sunday night...Sfc high and upper ridge slide off to our east as a potent northern stream disturbance tracks southeastwards from Canada towards our region. The associated sfc low will track to the north of our region. This will result in a warm advection/overrunning setup as precip develops Saturday night and continue into Sunday. With a cold antecedent airmass, mixed precip is looking likely across portions of the ADKs and southern Greens. Areas further south should start as plain rain, with a change to all rain Sunday as the sfc low tracks to our north. Behind this system, it looks to become cold and breezy again with renewed chances for lake effect snow showers on Monday, although Tuesday looks drier with high pressure building overhead. && .AVIATION /07Z WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY/... Through 06z Thursday...An area of light snow showers currently progressing through Central NY will continuing lifting northeastward early this morning. While latest radar mosaic shows a fairly organized area of showers, ground truth observations from ASOS and NYS mesonet sites show very little precipitation actually reaching the ground. This precipitation shield should strengthen a bit as it nears the terminals so we continued the trend shown in the previous TAF and included a TEMPO group at GFL, ALB and PSF for snow showers resulting in MVFR vis/cigs from 12-15 UTC. Not enough confidence that snow showers will be heavy enough to lead to IFR vis so did not show IFR conditions in the TEMPO. POU looks to miss out on the stronger forcing and therefore remain mainly dry but cigs should become MVFR. Snow showers should continue lifting northeastward this morning away from the terminals by or shortly after 15 UTC. As temperatures trend above freezing, any lingering showers should mix with rain as the warm front pushes through. Winds in the wake of the boundary shift more southwesterly and strengthen with sustained winds reaching 10- 15kts and gusts up to 20-25kts at all terminals. Cigs look to improve at POU and PSF back to VFR thereafter but likely remain MVFR at GFL and ALB the rest of the afternoon. Any cigs improvements trend back downwards to MVFR after 00 UTC at PSF and POU as the cold front approaches. Additional lake effect snow showers then look to redevelop towards the end of the TAF period as shown in the latest high resolution guidance with a narrow band first reaching ALB before extending towards PSF. This may result in IFR vis but confidence remains low at this time so opted to show a trend to MVFR vis. Outlook... Thursday Night: Low Operational Impact. Slight Chance of SHRA. Friday: Moderate Operational Impact. Chance of SHRA...SHSN. Friday Night: No Operational Impact. NO SIG WX. Saturday: No Operational Impact. NO SIG WX. Saturday Night: High Operational Impact. Likely RA. Sunday: High Operational Impact. Breezy. Likely RA. Sunday Night: Moderate Operational Impact. Breezy. Chance of RA...SN. Monday: Moderate Operational Impact. Breezy. Chance of SHRA...SHSN. && .ALY WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... CT...None. NY...None. MA...None. VT...None. && $$ SYNOPSIS...35 SHORT TERM...35 LONG TERM...35 AVIATION...31