Snow-covered roads greeted many in the Jamestown area when they woke up Monday. Most schools in the south county closed as lake effect snow that has bombarded the center and northern parts of the county hit the south county overnight. P-J photo by John Whittaker

Most area schools are closed Monday after lake effect snow made its presence felt in the south county.

More than three feet of snow have fallen in the northern end of Chautauqua County since Friday, but the south county had largely seen much less snow. Snow began falling early Monday morning, leading Jamestown, Southwestern, Panama, Sherman, Falconer, Frewsburg, Clymer, Pine Valley, Chautauqua Lake, Westfield Academy and Central School, all BOCES programs, Brocton, Ripley, Fredonia, Dunkirk, Silver Creek and Forestville all canceled school Monday.

According to the National Weather Service, moderate to locally heavy lake effect snow will continue through

Tuesday across the western Southern Tier southeast of Lake Erie with significant additional accumulations. The forecaster’s discussion on the weather service website states the lake effect snow has adjusted to a new northwest flow direction. Most of the snow will focus on Chautauqua and western Cattaraugus counties today through Tuesday. An upstream connection to Lake Huron is becoming established this morning, and will continue to meander across the western Southern Tier today through Tuesday, locally enhancing the snowfall.

“Snow intensity will not be as great as the past few days, but still could occasionally reach 1-2″ per hour where the Lake Huron connection is superimposed on upslope areas of the Chautauqua Ridge,” the discussion states. “Additional accumulations today through Tuesday will still add up to impressive amounts given the persistence of the favorable setup. Expect another 12-20″ of additional accumulation across the higher terrain of Chautauqua and western Cattaraugus counties over the next 36 hours. The heaviest snow from this point forward in this northwest flow regime will focus across the higher terrain inland from the lake, with much less along the immediate shoreline including the NYS Thruway corridor.”

Weather service models show Jamestown receiving an additional 7 to 15 inches of snow through Thursday morning while Dunkirk could see an additional 8 to 21 inches of snow. Fredonia could see an additional 12 to 28 inches of snow.