Off Lake Erie...
While there is significant ice cover on the lake as a whole, most of
the open water is at the northeast end over the deep water west of
Chautauqua County. There is likely more than enough open water and
thin ice to support a lake response. The best setup will occur this
evening when westerly flow aligns beneath the shallow inversion.
This should allow for a band of lake effect snow to develop over
southern Erie and western Wyoming counties, including some of the
more distant Buffalo Southtowns. This is primarily based on pattern
recognition, most of the high-res model guidance is likely under-
forecasting this potential due to the impacts of observed ice cover
on model physics. The band of snow will weaken and drift south into
far southern Erie and western Chautauqua counties overnight as
boundary layer flow weakens and becomes more sheared. Sunday expect
snow showers to focus close to the lakeshore of Chautauqua and far
southern Erie counties in very weak flow.
As far as accumulations go, expect 3-5" across portions of Southern
Erie County this afternoon through tonight, and 2-3" across western
Chautauqua County. The forecast snow is falling over too long of a
time period to reach advisory criteria. That said, if the band
starts to organize better than expected this evening headlines may
be required. Ice cover on Lake Erie is a wildcard late in the
season, and wind today may be moving the ice and altering the
location and size of open water areas.
Looks like its setting up on WSW flow