Thanks for the post. I didn't realize that the winds were that strong here in SYR since the winds on the ground are still light at less than 10 knots.
After reading your post I took a look at ADDs (aviation weather site) and they are currently showing winds aloft at 3,000 feet at almost 50 knots out of the south, which results in a heck of a windshear layer somewhere around the 2000 foot AGL level.
One of my respected instructors always warned me that when winds aloft are strong out of the south, the controllers have a hard time turning the aircraft onto the localizer without the aircraft shooting well north past the localizer. The instructor's point was to always be prepared to turn a bit sooner than normally.
Sure enough, I just heard a conversation between JetBlue and the approach controller pointing out that the last aircraft overshot the localizer by 4 miles given the winds. JetBlue responded by reporting winds aloft at 3,000 as 180 at 50 knots. That is quite the crosswind from the south!