Harrison Thorp
Thursday, January 2, 2014 6:31 am

Up to a foot of snow accompanied by bitter cold temperatures and wind chills of potentially historic proportion are expected overnight tonight and into Friday as a widespread storm tracks from the southwest through New England.

Accuweather meteorologists are predicting blizzard conditions for the area as the storm reaches its peak early Friday morning.

Strong winds are predicted during the worst of the storm which could produce widespread power outages, while wind chills of -40 degrees are likely overnight.

The Weather Channel is predicting a low of -13 on Friday.

Snow depth could be a foot or more.

A fluffy, light snow had already begun early this morning throughout the Rochester area.

As usual, the Rochester/Lebanon area is on the line between snow intensity demarcations; south of that line will be the worst wind and accumulation, while north of the line will see the lowest temperatures and wind chills.

For a winter storm to be characterized as a blizzard requires prolonged winds in excess of 35 mph accompanied by heavy snowfall.