Syracuse, NY. The National Weather Service today issued a winter storm warning for a single region in Upstate New York.
The dubious honor comes to Oneida County, where forecasters say today’s storm will stay just long enough to deliver at least 8 inches of snow within 12 hours, which is the threshold to give a warning.
“It looks like there will be a heavy band across the area as the low pressure systems move through the region,” said Jake Chalupsky, a meteorologist from the Binghamton Weather Service. The area is likely to have the highest snow speed – up to 1 centimeter per hour – and the longest snowfall, he said.
It is unusual to have a warning for one country.
“I have never seen just one country under a warning like this,” tweeted Jill Reale, a meteorologist for WKTV in Utica, the seat of Oneida County.
The warning is valid until Wednesday at 07:00, although the biggest snowfall today is expected between 13 and 18 hours.
The lonely status of Oneida County is also in part an expression of how the weather service divides territory among its forecasting offices. Oneida County is the farthest east the Binghamton office issues forecasts; neighboring Herkimer County begins the western edge of the forecasting area for the Albany office. So far, Albany has not issued a warning for Herkimer County, though Reale said it is possible.
It is not uncommon for the northern half of Oneida County to be included in a warning, while the southern half is not. This is because the northern ridges of the province lie on top of Tug Hill, which is affected by snow from the lake. The weather services usually issue separate forecasts for the northern and southern parts of the country when there is snow in the lake.
Today’s snow, however, is not a lake effect; it is a widespread snowfall coming from a larger system moving in from the south.
Snow is likely all over Upstate New York today, from about 1 centimeter in western New York to the 8 centimeters in Oneida County. Winter weather advice – less than 12 centimeters within 12 hours – applies to most of the region.
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