Rain, possible snowfall expected this week

ROME — A period of warm weather — as well as a drought watch — for the Mohawk Valley will likely come to an end this week when a low pressure system brings rain and possibly the area’s first noticeable snowfall, according to the National Weather Service in Binghamton. “A low pressure system is bringing rain and snow potential Wednesday night,” explained Meteorologist Ema Sera. “It initially will be rain Wednesday night and then Thursday night where you can see some snow mixing into the region.

” Sera said the snow will likely be “impacting higher elevations,” and there is some “uncertainty with how much snow we’re expecting” and how heavy the snow will be. “It’ll be a wet snow, is what we’re expecting,” she noted. The lack of snow this late into November was the result of a pattern of “ridges” of atmosphere “just over the Eastern portion of the U.



S.” for the past several weeks, keeping the weather warm, Sera said. Weather normally “fluctuates between ridges and troughs,” she said, and “the weather pattern has been warmer” as of late.

That is all going to change in the later half of this week, where we will see a “great opportunity for rain.” This period of warm weather also led the state Department of Environmental Conservation to issue a drought watch for most of New York State, and a more severe drought warning for much of the Catskill, Hudson Valley and New York City regions. A “warning” is the second of four levels of state drought advisories — watch, warning, emergency and disaster.

There are no statewide mandatory water use restrictions in place under a drought watch or warning, but citizens are strongly encouraged to voluntarily conserve water. There are no drought or water restrictions in Oneida County, which is under the state’s drought watch..