What a confusing forecast this has been. As of Thursday, many parts of the Hudson Valley were predicted to get very little, if any, snow this weekend. Just a day or two before, some were calling for nearly a foot. Now, the forecast is still uncertain as we enter the weekend. However, the National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for Dutchess and Orange counties (Sat. 12am - Sun. 12am), and a Winter Storm Warning for Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties. In just a fairly small distance, we jump from a simple advisory to a full-fledged winter storm.

A strong Nor'easter is expected to develop off the Atlantic coast and rapidly strengthen as it moves northeast. Some parts of eastern Long Island, the Jersey shore, and coastal New England are expecting sustained blizzard conditions. The storm is forecasted to move from south to north across the Hudson Valley late Friday and into early Saturday.

What has been tricky about this particular winter storm, is exactly where it's going to shift. Many weather models can not seem to decide if the storm will trend east or west. HVW says that the more recent models keep the storm coming west, so that will mean heavier snowfall totals for many parts of the area. Some areas west in Ulster and Sullivan counties might get very little snow. Hudson Valley Weather has even labeled a large swath inland in Dutchess and Orange counties a boom or bust zone. This will be a storm that could affect some towns very little, while just one town over to the east gets nearly a foot of snow. We won't know until it happens.

What we do know is that it's going to get every windy by early Saturday, with peak gusts by Saturday afternoon. HVW says that winds could gust from 35-40 MPH Saturday, so expect some scattered power outages.

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