Weather: Winter storm winds down in Central New York; snow totals ahead of last year

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The worst of the winter storm has passed through Central New York and should be completely gone by early evening.

"You still have one more blossom of snow going through between now and 5 o'clock," said Mark Pellerito, a National weather radar Service meteorologist, about 3:30 p.m. today. "The heaviest of the snow will start diminishing by then."

The winter storm warning issued by the weather service expires at 7 p.m.

The final total for the storm in Syracuse will be about 8 inches, he said. That would make it the snowiest day so far this winter. We had 7.7 inches on Jan. 2.

The weather service had forecast 8 to 14 inches of snow across Central New York for this storm. The higher amounts fell farther south, in Binghamton and along the Southern Tier.

The original forecast had been for heavy snow in the morning in Central New York that would diminish by early afternoon. The storm hit drier air than meteorologists expected in the morning, Pellerito said, splitting the storm into two.

"The first portion of the storm didn't turn out to be quite so bad, but then this afternoon it was worse," he said. "The end result is the same even though the play-by-play changed."

Snow totals at the Syracuse airport are ahead of last year at this time, Pellerito said. So far this season, 76 inches of snow have fallen. By Feb. 5 last year, we had 61.6 inches. An average year is about 80 inches by this time.

Here's the 4 p.m. National Weather Service radar map showing the storm heading out of Central New York.

Tonight: Scattered flurries before 4 a.m. Cloudy, with a low around 9. Wind chill values as low as zero. Northwest wind 6 to 13 mph.

Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 18. West wind 13 to 16 mph.

Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 18.

Sunday:A 40 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a high near 25.