Morning madness

Life in Central New York: In a matter of minutes Wednesday morning, temperatures dropped, rain changed to sleet and then snow, and routine commutes to work and school turned chaotic.

The culprit was a cold front that whipped across Lake Ontario and deposited 3.6 inches in Auburn.

Temperatures in the early morning hours dropped from the low 50s to 35 degrees by daybreak, and then to 31 by 9 a.m., when meteorologists from the National Weather Service in Binghamton issued a winter weather advisory for counties in the Finger Lakes region.