CLEVELAND — Get ready. We're about to pay for that warm, quiet fall we experienced.
Weather Impact Alerts start Wednesday evening and go through Friday as our first storm system moves in just in time for those late Wednesday and early Thanksgiving travelers around northern Ohio.
It all begins Wednesday afternoon as an area of low pressure gets going in the Ohio Valley, bringing a shield of precip our way. We'll likely see a mix of wet snowflakes and raindrops at times Wednesday afternoon into the evening before a more steady area of wet snow (mixed with raindrops in spots) moves in Wednesday night.
This would bring a coating to potentially an inch or two across much of northern Ohio waking up Thanksgiving morning. By midday Thursday, we should quiet down with cloudy skies and areas of drizzle or flurries as the main system moves east.
Colder air will begin to dive south across the Great Lakes behind this system Thursday night. This will trigger lake effect snow in the northern lakes, and we'll watch the lake snow develop over Lake Erie and Ontario thereafter.
By Friday morning into midday, our lake effect snow machine should be fired up and going strong with widespread snow showers and areas of heavier lake snows where those bands set up. Travelling in the snowbelt east of Cleveland will not be recommended starting Friday and going all the way through next week -- especially that favored Cleveland-to Erie-to Buffalo route.
The bands of lake snow will "wobble" back and forth between our snowbelt -- up toward Erie -- and then back into our snowbelt all the way through next week.
There will be a series of "clipper systems" that will dive through the Ohio Valley. Each system will disrupt the winds briefly before renewing the cold and wind flow off the lakes. The result will be that moving lake effect snow band that will likely bring feet of snow by the middle of next week somewhere between Cleveland and Buffalo.
Keep in mind, if you're travelling Sunday, it will probably be best to avoid the I-90 corridor between Buffalo and Cleveland if you can. If you have the option to take a more southern route, it will likely be best.
