Thousands of Capital Region commuters were impacted by major delays Wednesday morning due to highways and roadways being covered in unforeseen ice and a light coating of snow.
WGY-Accuweather Meteorologist Heather Zehr explains that a lake effect snow band was expected overnight, but originally it was thought that it would setup to the South of the Capital Region, rather than come into the area overnight and then drift South; which is what transpired.
Zehr says, "our biggest problem is that we had temperatures that at the surface were in the 20s so it was very cold, but the rest of the atmosphere isn't quite as cold. So we had, relatively speaking; warm snow fall on to very cold roadways, melt, and then freeze...causing slick roads."
Looking ahead to Thursday night into Friday morning, the Capital Region is preparing for our first significant snowfall of the season.
Snow and sleet will arrive Thursday night and continue overnight into Friday morning. Rain is possible Friday morning, but it's looking to primarily be snow and sleet.
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