Taste of winter to visit Midwest, Northeast with snow showers
By ALEX SOSNOWSKI, AccuWeather.com
Progressively colder air will lead to the first snowflakes and snowfall of the season, as well as the first freeze in parts of the Great Lakes, Northeast and neighboring Canada this weekend.
A cold blast, frost and snowflakes are not all that unusual for this time of the year. However, following warm weather during the past six weeks, some people spending time outdoors will be shivering this weekend. The frost can damage plants that are still thriving due to the recent warmth.
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This is not the type of setup to bring feet or even inches of snow to the snow belts to the lee of the Great Lakes but rather a rain/snow mix.
The rain and snow showers could be accompanied by thunder and lightning. Waterspouts are possible from lower Lake Michigan to lakes Erie and Ontario.
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A snowstorm is not coming to areas where most people live.
According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Steve Travis, "Accumulating snow will not occur in areas close to the lakes or at elevations below 1,000 feet."
Most of the slushy accumulation will be on non-paved surfaces.
Rain showers will accompany the next push of chilly air as it spreads from parts of the Great Lakes to the Northeast Thursday night into Friday. The coldest locations of the upper Great Lakes, New York state and northern New England could have a few snowflakes mixing in at this time.
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As a reinforcing surge of colder air presses southeastward Friday night into Saturday night, cold rain, a mix of rain and snow and wet snow showers are likely to spread from the Great Lakes to the interior Northeast. This will be the most likely time for snowflakes to make it to hilly areas of northeastern Ohio, the mountains of western and northern Pennsylvania, lower elevations of upstate New York and central and northern New England.
"People in areas across the ski country of New York, central New York and northwestern Pennsylvania could wake up to a coating of snow Sunday morning," Travis said.
In portions of northern Maine, New Brunswick and the eastern townships of Quebec, the potential exists for a few inches of snow in some locations from Saturday night into Sunday.
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"For example, in Buffalo, New York, the average date for the first snowflakes is Oct. 24 and the earliest some sort of frozen precipitation has fallen was on Sept. 20," Travis said.
Parts of northern New England have already received their first flakes of the season.
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In addition to chilly rain showers and snow for some, the main impact will be for the chilliest air of the season so far and for the first frost and freeze of the season to dip southward into parts of the Ohio Valley to the suburbs of the major Interstate-95 cities from Virginia to Maine.
In areas from the Midwest to the Northeast, there can be a frost or freeze both Saturday night and Sunday night. In the Midwest, Saturday night may be the colder of the two nights. In the Northeast, Sunday night will be the colder night.
For places that have had a frost or freeze in the past by the middle of October, take precautions to protect vulnerable plants, harvest vegetables that are ripe, empty bird baths and drain water out of garden hoses.
During the showers of rain and snow, as well as cloudy intervals during the day, actual temperatures can plummet 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit.
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AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures will spend a considerable amount of time in the 30s from the upper Great Lakes to northern New England during the daylight hours. Even farther south from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic coast, daytime RealFeel Temperatures will be several degrees lower than the actual temperature during cloudy intervals or in shady areas.
Following the building chill into this weekend, another warmup is in store during the first part of next week.
According to AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams, "The first stage of the anticipated El Niño winter weather pattern will follow later next week in the Central and Eastern states."
AccuWeather has more on the El Niño pattern coming to the U.S. this winter.
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