Hudson Valley: Hazardous Weather Into Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Eve is expected to be rainy. Showers are possible, especially during the afternoon. Then high, gusty winds are expected to roar through the region Wednesday evening and well into the day on Thursday. They have the potential to cause power line damage and electric service interruptions.

The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for Wednesday and Thursday in the mid-Hudson Valley.

Strong winds are possible tonight as a storm system moves across the region. Strong winds are possible Thanksgiving Day as a storm system moves across the region. If confidence increases that wind gusts will exceed 45 mph, a wind advisory may be needed in some areas.

Utilities are battening down operations and putting extra crews on standby in case of damage to power lines. Orange & Rockland Utility officials said an additional 120 overhead line technicians will join O&R and contractor overhead line crews and tree removal crews Wednesday afternoon as they ramp up for a high-volume outage response to the storm.

Plus, those winds could mess up the Thanksgiving Day parade. If winds exceed 23 miles per hour on parade day, Macy's isn't allowed to fly balloons because of the injuries once caused by a run-away Cat in the Hat.

Temperatures will rise with the storm, up into the low 50s, before dropping to a seasonal level.

"As the winds subside we will be left with a beautiful Thanksgiving day with highs starting out in the 40’s but sliding down as those NW winds usher in colder air," said Alex Marra and Bill Potter of Hudson Valley Weather.

That's if you're home. If you're traveling, the NWS says

Very windy conditions are likely across much of the Midwest and Ohio Valley region where winds could gust in excess of 50 mph at times. High wind warnings are in effect from the greater Kansas City area to western Ohio, and wind advisories farther south from Arkansas to the Mid-Atlantic region. To the north of the surface low will be a swath of moderate to heavy snow across the Upper Midwest on Wednesday where winter storm warnings are in effect. Severe travel disruptions are likely for these areas. The Sierra Nevada mountains are likely to get hammered with blizzard conditions, and heavy snow is also expected towards the east to include the northern Rockies, Wasatch Range, and the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Winter storm watches and warnings are already in effect for many of these areas with the potential for 1 to 3 feet of snow. Thanksgiving travel in these regions will also be severely affected.

In the Hudson Valley, forecasters are predicting a possible winter storm at the end of the holiday weekend.

"Please remain steady in ignoring the plethora of click bait articles," Potter and Marra said. "At this point know there is a potential for a storm, it has the potential to be mostly snow and plowable, low confidence due to be in longer range."

As of Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service says only that snow is likely on Sunday in Dutchess Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster and Westchester counties.

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