NWS Upgrades Hudson Valley Storm Advisories

As a system full of snow and ice bears down on the Hudson Valley, the National Weather Service has updated its forecast, predicting a little more snow possible for Rockland and northern Westchester. It has also updated its advisories, upgrading those areas plus Orange and Putnam counties to the "winter storm warning" status Dutchess and Ulster achieved Friday morning.

Places to go, people to see? The NWS says travel will be difficult to impossible across the region Saturday night through Sunday morning with snow or ice covered roadways and very low visibility in heavy snow.

The storm will arrive moving west to east after 4 p.m. on Saturday. By 8 p.m. snowfall rates could be 1 to 2 inches an hour at times, according to Hudson Valley Weather.

The Hudson Valley could bear the brunt of the icefall, according to the NWS (see map, below).

The potential for blowing and drifting snow will increase Sunday afternoon into the evening. Wind chills will fall below zero. Frostbite and hypothermia can occur to exposed skin in under 30 minutes.

Here are the latest snow accumulation estimates from the NWS:

Dutchess

Heavy snow and mixed precipitation of sleet and freezing rain expected. Total snow accumulations of 6 to 12 inches and ice accumulations of up to two tenths of an inch expected. Winds gusting 20 to 30 mph on Sunday afternoon.

Orange, Putnam, Rockland, northern Westchester

Heavy mixed precipitation expected. Total snow accumulations of 6 to 10 inches and ice accumulations of around one tenth of an inch expected.

Southern Westchester

Heavy mixed precipitation possible. Total snow accumulations of 3 to 5 inches and ice accumulations of up to one tenth of an inch possible. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.

Images: AccuWeather.com, National Weather Service

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