First Defense: Part One Of Storm Is Over, Part Two Now Beginning With Very Cold Temperatures

Cold weather stock — John Talbot / CC BY 2.0

JAMESTOWN – As forecasted, the widespread snow associated with the storm system that’s been impacting the region over the past 24 hours is winding down as the storm has moved out of the area.

However, that’s only half of the storm. The second half is just now getting started.

As of Noon hour on Sunday, the center of the storm was over the Hudson Valley region of New York State, throwing heavy snow and some mixed precipitation across Massachusetts and the remainder of New England.

For Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania, we are now dealing with lighter lake effect snow showers as the winds are dragging across the relatively warmer waters of Lake Erie.

These are the overall snow totals we have gotten in so far from this event. Jamestown is officially at 16.3 inches, which is a combined total from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning.

While the Winter Storm Warning continues until 6 PM this evening, my gut opinion says the National Weather Service in Buffalo will cancel it before 6 PM. The State College NWS has already nixed the Winter Storm Warning for Warren County, PA earlier this morning.

With a north to northwest wind continuing‌ across the region, that is now feeding in Arctic air from Canada, leading to the coldest air we’ve seen so far this winter season.

For that, a Wind Chill Warning is now posted up for the entire Southern Tier, going into effect at 6 p.m. tonight and running through 7 p.m. Monday.

As temps will struggle to make it out of the single digits both today and Monday, along with a healthy northern wind, wind chill values will drop to sub-zero over the next 24 hours, possibly reaching as low as 30 below zero at times.

These are dangerous wind chill levels and you don’t want to be out in this kind of cold for very long. If you are venturing outdoors, make sure to dress in layers and cover all exposed skin to prevent the risk of hypothermia. Frostbite can set in after just 15 minutes of exposure to “feels like” temperatures of 25 below zero or colder.