Watkins Glen is already sitting at 90° at midday — and with the forecast high there at 93°, the afternoon’s peak heating is still ahead. That warmth is coming alongside a blanket of wildfire smoke drifting in on northwest winds, and NWS Buffalo and NWS Binghamton have Air Quality Alerts covering every county in the Finger Lakes through midnight Wednesday night. If you’re sensitive to smoke, now’s a good time to move activity indoors.
The cold front responsible for today’s cooling trend is pressing south out of eastern Canada, and it’s already beginning to drag dewpoints down — Elmira and Corning have dipped into the upper 40s for humidity, which will make the heat feel more tolerable than yesterday. Highs will still reach the upper 80s to low 90s across the southern tier this afternoon before conditions ease after sunset. Overnight lows settle near 74°.
Tomorrow brings relief: highs drop to the mid-80s under partly cloudy skies, and by Friday the region is tracking toward the low 80s. A more meaningful rain chance arrives Saturday and Sunday, with precip probabilities topping 80%.
Weather Center forecast for the Finger Lakes region. Sourced from NWS, Open-Meteo, NWS Area Forecast Discussion, and USGS stream-flow data. Updated 6 AM, noon, and 6 PM ET.