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Thanksgiving Eve Snowstorm Bears Down

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The first major winter storm of the season is hitting the region this hour on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Snow already covers the ground in some regions while other areas are just starting to see the changeover from rain and sleet at this hour.

Travelers looking to get out of town for Thanksgiving usually face heavy traffic, but this year, weather is the wildcard. Meteorologist Luigi Meccariello is with the National Weather Service out of Albany.

“In our region here, the worst of it will probably be in parts of Columbia and Greene Counties where right now those areas are under winter storm warnings, along with Dutchess and Ulster Counties as well,” says Meccariello. “Snowfall totals in that areas are going to be ranging between 10-14 inches of snow with the most steadiest and heaviest snow occurring during the Wednesday afternoon to Wednesday evening time frame.”

He says the forecast for the heavier snow is also for parts of the Berkshires as well as areas higher in elevation. There is one Hudson Valley area that could see a bit less.

“Probably between 8 and 10 inches across southern Dutchess County,” says Meccariello.

The latest storm comes a few days after a dustup between the National Weather Service and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who accused the Weather Service of missing the mark when it came to forecasting the monster snowstorm in Buffalo. Cuomo’s criticism elicited fiery responses, one from Weather Channel Meteorologist Ari Sarsalari, who tweeted, quote, “you're saying @NWSBuffalo "missed" the forecast on the #LakeEffect #Snow? You are incredibly wrong.” Salsalari then posted the National Weather Service forecast, highlighting the forecasted potential for an historic lake effect event. Weatherman Al Roker also tweeted critiques. Cuomo on Monday apologized, saying the intent was not to criticize any forecaster, but that a new state weather system that he announced last January would be more accurate than the federal service.

Meanwhile, the snow continues bearing down on the Hudson Valley Thanksgiving Eve, and Cuomo was in Westchester County monitoring storm preparation and response efforts at the Hudson Valley Transportation Management Center, while Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino is at work, ready to head to the county’s emergency operations center in Hawthorne if need be.

“As needed, I’ll be in contact with the governor if the storm gets bad, but, other than that, the operations center that we have is in the same building as the state’s so we’ll man it as we need to and I’ll be there as I need to,” says Astorino. “But, other than that, today we’re just racing for a typical snowstorm, nothing overwhelming.”

He says Westchester County Airport is open, but some afternoon flights are cancelled. Albany International Airport is open and operating. Delays are being reported at major hubs on the East Coast including Newark and Philadelphia. Again, Astorino.

“We’re monitoring the storm. We’re working with our communities. We had a conference call with Con Edison, so everyone is prepared. It’s just, we’re all wondering how much is going to come and where,” Astorino says. “And there’s that [Interstate-] 287 line that generally determines more or less. Northern Westchester tends to get more snow but we’ll just see where the band goes. But the parkways are starting to deteriorate a little bit. They’re slippery as the temperatures begin to drop.”

He says there have been some rollovers on the parkways, but no serious injuries. Steve Peterson is director of Ulster County emergency services. He says his department is ready and not expecting anything out of the norm for this kind of weather.

“Staff at the emergency communications center has been increased to cover the emergency load,” says Peterson. “The highway departments are all prepared, ready to go.”

He says they put on extra dispatchers to handle any additional call volume. Denise Doring VanBuren is spokeswoman for Central Hudson Gas & Electric.

“At this point, we are expecting this to be largely a snow event. And, in most cases, with snow we don’t typically see widespread outages unless there is accompanying wind or icing conditions. So we, at this point, are hoping a nice, fluffy snow falls and that we don’t see extended power outages,” says Doring VanBuren. “That said, we often in a storm like this will see power outages that result from motor vehicle accidents.”

NYSEG also is prepared, concerned about any wet snow and winds that could damage trees which, in turn, could damage the company’s facilities. Con Edison officials say the potential weight of the snow could bring down power lines. In addition, road salt will mix with melting snow and could damage underground electrical wiring, possibly leading to outages. Orange & Rockland Utilities has about 40 O&R overhead line crews, 30 O&R/Con Edison contractor overhead line crews, and 45 tree-trimming crews ready for deployment.

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