A Lake Effect Snow Advisory has been issued for much of Western New York. Jon Hitchcock of the National Weather Service expects the snow event to start south of Buffalo and arrive in the city in the early minutes of 2016.
"New Year's festivities downtown will be mainly dry, maybe a few light flurries and it will be on the cold side," Hitchcock said.
"Temperatures around freezing, but a pretty good breeze. Wind chill temperatures will be down in the twenties so you're going to want to dress in layers."
A Lake Effect Snow Advisory runs from noon today through noon Saturday for Southern Erie, Wyoming, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties. The city of Buffalo will be under a Lake Effect Snow Advisory from 1am to 1pm New Year's Day.
"It's only going to drop maybe an inch or so on the hills today. Then, it will get better organized tonight with two to four inches on the hills."
In all, eight to 12 inches of snow could hit higher elevation areas by noon Saturday.
The episode wraps up another event-filled year for Buffalo's weather forecasters.
"I think the biggest story was the extreme cold of last winter," Hitchcock offered.
"The summer was fairly benign, a pretty nice summer, and obviously, this fall has been fairly benign."
