Good evening, atmospheric audience and happy Winter Solstice yesterday! But just think, daylight hours start increasing going forward (approximately just 9 hours now to roughly 15 hours on June 20th!). How about that storm the other day? Those winds really verified.
I wanted to jump on and give you my outlook for the week ahead, if there will be snow on the ground by you for Christmas, what’s ahead for the rest of the month into the New Year. I will say if you’re traveling anywhere outside the northeast in the coming week, it’ll be much warmer than normal south of the Mason-Dixon line. You could see temperatures in the 70s to low 80s! But for the Northeast, temperatures will continue to be below normal along with multiple storm threats which I’ll address. But first let’s talk about our snow for tomorrow.
While it won’t be snowing on Christmas Day we have a shot of snow on the ground beforehand as our next system is headed to us tomorrow morning. Nothing like last weeks event, this clipper will spread a general 1-3″ on average. Let’s break this down to regions.
Tri-State Area
For the morning commute tomorrow, snow moves into C/NJ and N/NJ between 5-7am tracking Northeast at a pretty good clip. There will be a sharpe cut off more than likely just south of I78. S/NJ and Long Island could see a mix of sleet to freezing rain with some festive flakes. Snow tapers off by early to mid afternoon across the tri-state. Up to 1-3 inches across NWNJ burbs into Hudson Valley.
Southern New England
Snow moves into the Seacoast and southern NH between 12pm and 2pm. Becomes steadier as we approach sundown so take care driving during rush-hour. Snow tapers off between 9pm and midnight for most of the Granite State. However, coastal Maine could see continued heavy snow, especially the mid-coast through the overnight hours into Wednesday. Due in to a rare Norlun trough (inverted trough) which can create an intense band of heavy snow in a small area. This includes Bowdoin, Bath, Boothbay, as well as Portland. In fact, this area is under a Winter Storm Watch versus a Winter Weather Advisory for the rest of the Seacoast area. Don’t be surprised for up to 6 inches or more. For the rest of New Hampshire up to 3-5 inches is likely. The Green and Whites will do well with this one, with 6-10″ possible for Jay Peak (which has nearly 200″ for the season already!) to Bretton Woods!
Christmas Day!
It’s a tale of 2 seasons on Christmas Day with temperatures spiking into the 70s across the Southeast from Naples up to NC, to a chilly 30s to 40s across the Northeast. I can’t rule out a few flakes up in Northern NH over to Maine.
Next Storm System (Friday)
Our next storm system moves in late Friday night. This one will have a sharp cutoff boundary between sleet, freezing rain and snow, which is yet to be determined as of tonight. Colder air is pressing and a blocking high over Greenland is moving snow line further south as of this moment. This could impact travel so stay tuned for more details. A third system is possible for Sunday into Monday. This takes us into the last week of the year which for the Northeast has another Arctic blast and snow threat around New Year’s.
Quick Quake Update:
I’m tracking another swarm that went off the Japan coast last week, and just went silent. Plus a deep magnitude 6.5 hit in Papa New Guinea (just north of Australia). Deep quakes tend to lead to more shallow larger quakes. That said, no change to my Mega Quake call, time and size wise. More to come.
That’s it for now. Lots to cover and talk about so stay tuned. Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate! I’ll be back shortly, and remember weather never sleeps!