An interesting phenomenon called shadowing is forecast over the weekend (3-13-10 to 3-14-10). Shadowing occurs around here when there is a strong east to southeasterly low level flow. This causes heavier amounts of precipitation to occur on the eastern side of the mountain range. This in turn squeezes out much of the moisture in the atmosphere and leaves significantly less precipitation immediately west of the mountains.
You can really see its effects in the image to your left (click image to enlarge). The colored legend indicates rainfall in inches. On the east side of the Catskills and Poconos, the rainfall is on the order of 2-4 inches on this particular model. However, when you look around Binghamton the rainfall is on the order of a half to three quarters of an inch!
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