Good afternoon my atmosphere audience. How about that Saturday storm? It certainly lived up to the forecast on rainfall, totals wind gusts (60 to 70mph) up and down the eastern seaboard, and significant coastal flooding. See below a few tweets that I sent out in Hampton Beach, NH, and parts of coastal Maine. Given I’m a little short on time, let’s get right to the next bowling ball.
Our next event whips through the northeast with a windswept rain approaching NJ later this evening. But fortunately, it’s accelerating rapidly. For the tri-state area, including NJ, LI, and Hudson Valley, and most of CT, this system will be over by daybreak tomorrow morning. For most of MA and southern NH, heavy rain moves in during the overnight hours, ending by mid morning Saturday. 1 to 2 inches, more beach erosion (timing of astronomical high tides due to new moon doesn’t help), and 40-50mph gusts along the coast are the main impacts.
In central and northern New Hampshire, that snow rain/snow line from west to east from Walpole to Wakefield on North. Heavy snow will begin right around daybreak accumulating especially in the higher elevations between 4-8 inches. Clearly nothing like the last storm but as the southwest warm air continues to move north, that rain/snow line will push further north into the mountains creating a mix of sleet and freezing rain before tapering off early afternoon Saturday. On the back end of this event, a weak cold front moves through Saturday night into Sunday.
Don’t be surprised to see isolated snow showers, and snow squalls across the entire northeast. Even down to NJ. Temps will drop into the upper 20s to mid 30s on Sunday. There’s a chance you may see a very brief spike into the 50s Saturday afternoon along coastal sections from Rumson to Rye Beach. But it’s not gonna last and I urge you yet again to enjoy it.
My warning of possible pipe bursting numbing cold later next week is still on the table. How’s -48°F sound? That’s Edmonton today. That cold is slamming into the northwest (how is -20-30°F below zero with windchills of -40-60°F sound?) into Chicago (-15°F and -30°F windchill) and spilling down south into the teens in Texas on Sunday! In fact, the playoff game at Arrowhead will see temps plummet to below zero with windchills of -30°F! Miami may stay home, lol! Actually the sunshine state won’t avoid the polar plunge as it makes its way down southeast coast, dropping into the 30s and teens for Mickey Mouse!). The Bills game on Sunday will be another winter Wonderland with temperatures in the 20s, windchills in the single digits and snowing hard with 6 inches to a foot expected.
That’s it for now. I’ll be back with a follow up tomorrow with details on early next weeks storm which I alluded to with the B word. Latest models are showing more of a flatter progressive trend, which would keep the storm south and east of the I95 snow starved region. Not sure I buy that yet as models tend to have a difficult time with Arctic air in the system, which is now just off the Pacific coast. For those who love snow don’t despair because if its not this one, the bowling ball of Northeast storms will continue as I’m also sniffing out next weekend as another possible hit. The good news this time is we an injection of a true Arctic airmass! I will also go into the details of that pipe bursting polar plunge for our region. Stay tuned, enjoy the brief warmth tomorrow in the afternoon and I’ll be back shortly. And remember, Weather never sleeps!