The coldest air of the season, a potentially impactful winter storm, and lake-effect snow are all on the table as part of an active seven-day forecast.

It doesn’t happen that often that a 35-degree high temperature today will feel balmy. That’s because cold air both before and after today will make this day feel tropical compared to what we’re expecting towards the start of the weekend.

Snow showers have been in and out of the area around sunrise, although we are expecting a more widespread chance of snow as a warm front moves through the area around midday. Snow will be steady but brief, and will likely move out of the area by 2 pm. After the snow, the Valley will be briefly dry before another round of flakes moves in at the start of the evening. This will be accompanied by a cold front, which means that some snowfall pockets may become heavy at times. Snow squall issues are not off the table.

In addition to the snow, the cold front will bring a fresh serving of arctic air to our area. We will wake up close to 30 degrees on Thursday, but temperatures will likely fall throughout the second half of the day. Scattered snow showers are also possible in the morning. Partly cloudy skies will allow thermometers to fall into the teens as Friday begins.

Temperatures will keep falling through the day on Friday as a strong area of high pressure will funnel arctic air into the Valley. Lows overnight will likely get lower than the coldest air we saw on Tuesday, with negative single digits a possibility for the entire area. Wind chills as we wake up on Saturday will be well in the negatives, as well.

If the arctic blast wasn’t enough, a strong winter storm will be developing north of the Gulf around this time and bear down on much of the Eastern half of the country. We are still around four days out- well too early for any specifics, but we can point out trends at this point. Weather modeling has been tracking a potent low-pressure system to move mainly south of Youngstown. In the past day or so, weather models have trended this storm north- allowing our area to become one with a greater likelihood for accumulating or impactful snow. While timing also cannot be pinpointed at this time, we are expecting this system to move across the country during the weekend, with the greatest impacts in our area potentially coming between Saturday and Sunday.

A lot of what happens after this system moves out will be dictated by the system itself. There may be some lingering lake-effect snow in the wake of this system, though the chance of this is mild as of now. Temperatures will also be determined depending on the track of the system and the amount of snow coverage, though they are likely to range between below and well below average- par for the course on a cold, wintry seven-day forecast.