Barometric Pressure Forecast for Ithaca, New York
Barometric pressure forecast for Ithaca, New York — at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake among the gorges of the Allegheny Plateau, where cold air drains into the valley and grey skies persist. See current barometric pressure and what it means for weather-sensitive people.
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Pressure and weather in Ithaca
Ithaca sits in a deep valley at the head of Cayuga Lake, the longest of the Finger Lakes, surrounded by plateau uplands cut through by the gorges that give the town its character. The topography does real meteorological work. On clear calm nights cold dense air drains off the surrounding hills and pools on the valley floor, so downtown can be several degrees colder than the campus on the hill above it, and fog forms readily over the lake. The lake itself, deep and slow to freeze, moderates the shoreline and helps sustain the region's fruit growing. For barometric pressure, the controlling influence is the Great Lakes cyclone track. Lows moving northeast from the Ohio Valley or in from the plains pass close by, and the barometer falls steadily for a day or more ahead of them before rising behind the cold front. Lake-effect snow generated off Ontario and Erie reaches the Finger Lakes as scattered bands rather than the concentrated walls that hit the immediate shorelines, so heavy snow here is more often synoptic than lake-driven. Winter cloud cover is among the most persistent in the northeast. A barometric pressure forecast for Ithaca is most useful from late autumn into early spring.
What this means for you
Can barometric pressure cause headaches? In the Finger Lakes the pressure story is a steady procession of Great Lakes lows rather than any single dramatic event, and weather-sensitive people often find the cumulative effect of a stormy fortnight harder than one deep system. Use this barometric pressure forecast with Pressure Pal as a headache tracking app and check pressure change today as the next low tracks up the Ohio Valley.