- Swing and a Miss on Northeast Blizzard, barely (Impacts along Coast tho)
- Carolina’s Plowable Snow, Blizzard Conditions Along Coast
- Frigid Florida w Freeze Watches, Falling Iguana Alerts and Festive Flakes in Tampa??
- What’s Lurking Next Week: Frigid February Plus Poss Major Storms
Are we having fun yet? What a storm that was last Sunday into Monday! Clearly lived up to overall expectations over a wide area! Here’s a selection of totals across the Northeast. WeatherReMarks headquarters topped out at 19.4″ (53.9″ for the season)!
I’ve been off the radar and had limited time this week to do deep dives, but wanted to jump on for some details on what to expect. Good news, for a change, right? The B word that I alluded to on my January 21st post, looks like a swing and miss by a narrow margin. A rapidly deepening storm (down to appx 970mb) off the Carolina coast along with a wide wind field rides up and hugs the coast, but just off shore. For the Northeast, the eastern tip of Long Island, the Cape and perhaps Boston may see some snow. Significant wind gusts, coastal flooding will be the main culprits. The Carolinas are another story. Plowable snow, along with blizzard conditions along the coast followed by frigid temps are coming this weekend. The Florida freeze, well it’s been covered quite a bit at this point. The worst days are coming this weekend, with below normal temps into the middle of Feb. How’s an Extreme Freeze Watch and Freeze Watch sound? Falling Iguanas 🦎 Alert and dare I say possible festive flakes around Tampa? Ok, let’s briefly hit each event below.
Northeast: Feast or famine type event.
It’s a swing and a miss for the B word this weekend. It would’ve been a doozy and didn’t miss by much. Listen, not every storm is a lock. But look how close the storm came to our region:
Literally 100 mile jog west/east is the difference between a dusting to over a foot. That said, for the Cape and Islands they could see up to 6″ with 50 to 70mph winds, beach erosion and coastal flooding. It’ll be gusty (25-40mph) along the Seacoast on up to coastal Maine overnight Saturday into all day Sunday. Flurries to an inch or 2 is possible.
Carolina’s: Plowable Snow from Greenville, SC to Greenville, NC / Blizzard Conditions along Coast
This is a tough forecast but bottom line this is all day Saturday event. For NW SC, snow begins before or by daybreak, tapering off Saturday night. The rest of SC/NC the storm tapers off Sunday morning. A whole host of watches have been issued from Winter Storm Watches inland to Coastal Flood Watch, High Wind Watch along the coast. Blizzard Warnings will more than likely be issued along the coastal sections of NC.
A brief warm front may limit snow totals in spots. Wide spread 3-5″ across both states is likely with isolated areas up to 6″ (Greer to Charlotte and NE NC).
Strong winds of 30-40 mph inland, 40-60mph along the coast (Outer Banks could reach near hurricane force) may lead to power outages. Expect flight cancellations throughout the weekend as well. Snow could fall as far south to Hilton Head to Hardeeville to even Atlanta. Adding insult to misery, frigid temps blanket the area Sunday and Monday.
Frigid Florida!
I’ll keep the details limited to just graphics above and below to look over for all my Floridian followers. It’s a brutal brief stretch this weekend into early next week. But I’m afraid that temperatures will remain below normal at least into the middle of February. It’ll be more festive than accumulating but social media will explode if flakes fall around Tampa Saturday into Sunday morning!
That’s it for now. Updates coming on yet another threat for a storm next week, and details on February (hint: below normal temps continue with multiple storm threats on the table) as the powder keg pattern is locked in. Stay warm folks. Brutal temps (didn’t cover in this post but some moderation coming mid week but Arctic blast comes back end of next week), no snow melt any time soon, and more will be added to totals shortly. Time to hit the pillow for a few hours, as weather never sleeps!