Arctic air brewing to the north…
Well, we are ending January and starting February overall colder than much of the winter of 2022-23 has been in Central New York with highs in the 20s and 30s. However, it appears that by weeks end, the coldest blast of arctic air associated with the ‘Polar Vortex’ is poised to pay a brief visit to the region late this week.
Jet stream buckles and arctic air builds south
This could end up being the coldest air mass we’ve felt since last February with the jet stream plunging south across the Great Lakes and Northeast opening the floodgates to the arctic air building across Canada.
When does the arctic blast arrive?
Highs on Thursday preceding the arctic blast will rise well into the 30s with some sunshine and a stiff breeze, but Thursday night this all changes fast. Near or just after midnight, the arctic cold front blows through Central New York with snow showers and a few snow squalls.
Accumulation of snow will only be a coating to an inch or two and is followed by gusty north-northwest winds and brutally cold air late Thursday night into Friday.
How cold could it get around here?
Temperatures are likely to drop into the single digits to near 10 by Friday morning and could keep falling during the day to near 0 by day’s end! Winds are expected to be sustained between 10 and 20 mph at least and gusts could be upwards of 30 mph!
If these kinds of winds are realized with this kind of cold we could feel wind chills between about -5 to -20!
There should be at least a light accumulating lake snow that will blow around and not melt even with salt on the roads due to the extreme cold.
We bottom out Friday night/Saturday morning
Lows are going to be bitterly cold Friday night into Saturday morning, but the extent of lake clouds and the wind will determine how low the temperatures go. At this point, we think most are going to be at least in the single digits below zero, including Syracuse, but teens and 20s below zero are probable north and east of Syracuse away from any lake clouds and closer to the core of the coldest air.
Wind chills could dip into the teens, 20s, and maybe even 30s below zero Friday night which would lead to frostbite on exposed skin in minutes!
By the way, the record low Saturday morning in Syracuse is -15 set way back in 1908.
Arctic air exits as fast as it enters
After a nice looking but frigid Saturday with highs in the single digits and teens and less wind, we do think we start to warm Saturday night and continue to climb well into the 30s at least Sunday!
What a turnaround if this pans out, right?! We could be some 25 to 30+ degrees warmer Sunday compared to Friday and Saturday in CNY!
