Rochester, NY (WHAM) – We’ve managed to avoid any real cold and snow for most of the fall season around WNY so far, but it looks like we’ll soon see a much colder weather pattern develop across the Great Lakes and New York. England.

If you’ve lived in the Greater Rochester area for a while, you know that the cold can often lead to areas of heavy snowfall.

At this time, we are not expecting heavy snow in the Rochester area, but traditional snow belt areas south of Buffalo and east of Lake Ontario could see heavy snow over the weekend.

If you are on vacation, take along Rt. 90 south of Buffalo or north of Syracuse on Rt. 81 Then the snow from Friday to Monday morning may affect your holiday trip.

Much of the Greater Buffalo area is already under a National Weather Service Winter Storm Watch due to the potential for heavy snow this weekend.

For the rest of us in town, we’ll likely see the first flakes of the season late Wednesday night through Thursday before Thanksgiving. A storm system well south of the area will be responsible for these flakes.

Light to moderate snow will fall north of this storm system in central and northern Pennsylvania.

For travelers heading to the southern tier of New York State near Binghamton, or northern Pennsylvania, you’ll see the most snow on Thanksgiving.

Here is an overview of the expected snow amounts from Wednesday night through Thursday night.

Notice that most of the accumulating snow is expected well southeast of Rochester? Again, we will likely see some flakes flying and even the possibility of a muddy layer on grassy surfaces, but no widespread travel issues are expected near Rochester.

What we will all see is the return of colder than normal temperatures. By the weekend you can expect high temperatures in the low 30s, with nighttime temperatures in the low 20s.

It looks like the cold will have some staying power as well. Below normal temperatures are likely to continue into the coming week.

We are expecting additional snow and snow on the lake next week and will keep you posted as we get a little closer.

You can also take our weather forecast with you when you travel this year.

Find our local forecast, or the forecast where you’re going, on the 13WHAM Weather app below.

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