Good morning weather folks! Hope you all had a restful President’s Weekend. How about that snow squall on Saturday? It certainly lived up to its billing for most in the Northeast. There were plenty of really cool time lapses across social media which I retweeted. I received a ton of reports from followers telling of sudden white out conditions, and some noticed it got dark ahead of the front similar to a thunderstorm squall line. Drop a comment below on what you saw and your location. Thank you to those to passed along my Alert post.
Lets get to our next weather event and my initial thoughts. As a follow-up from my post last Thursday regarding this Friday for a chance of mixed precip, the kitchen sink is more like it, plus accumulating snow to the north is on the table. First, roll the windows down, open the sunroof, get outside today and enjoy a brief tease of spring like temperatures. You’ll notice it as soon as you head out the door this morning with most of the region kicking off the day in the 50s! Widespread mid to upper 60s across the Northeast is expected as the sun breaks through the clouds in the early afternoon (some spots top 70F)! A few record highs on this date may be broken. Take a look above at my almanac for select city high temps today. The nearly 150 year record high in NYC of 72 looks safe but we’ll see (yes it hit 72F in 1874). As quick as the warmth arrives, winds take a sudden shift from the SW to NW after dark, dropping the mercury into the 30s, and into the 20s by Thursday morning (teens in New England).
If you have any travel plans for Friday morning, expect lengthy delays, and/or cancellations along with hazardous driving conditions. Make changes today if possible as our next system arrives Thursday evening across the tri-state area on up the Northeast Friday. The last few runs have pushed cold air further south leading to snow accumulations across C to N NJ, the 5 boroughs, Hudson Valley and of course, CT MA on north. Those totals around the tri-state area will be kept in check due to a slop fest of sleet and freezing rain. That said, this is going to be quite the snowstorm for upstate NY, N CT and a possible bullseye for E MA and S VT and NH. Overnight, Winter Storm Watches were issued from NNJ, Hudson Valley, CT, E MA, S/C NH and SE ME.
For central NJ, the 5 boroughs and Long Island, sleet and freezing rain (aside from a few festive wet flakes, SNJ on south is all rain) will limit snow totals of 1-3″. Precip begins Thursday night, tapering off early afternoon Friday. As you head further north in the Hudson Valley, Westchester and across CT, sleet and freezing rain will still be a problem but snow totals will climb between 3-6″, tapering off mid-afternoon. For N MA up to southern VT and NH, this is an all snow event with 6-12″ possible, tapering late afternoon to early evening. The weekend looks dry with temps in the 20s for highs on Saturday, mid 30s on Sunday. I’ll be back shortly with another update to fine tune the storms track, timing, type and totals. Meanwhile, please enjoy the brief tease of the spring like breeze before old man winter returns!
