NEW YORK --
A winter storm will likely bring heavy snow to New England as well as
dangerous, icy winds to other northeastern states later this week.
Temperatures will warm slightly Wednesday and Thursday ahead of a
massive Atlantic storm system.
Blizzard conditions are likely
Thursday afternoon in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, and
blizzard conditions are also possible in Boston, Rhode Island,
Connecticut and Long Island, New York. Wind gusts above 50 mph are
likely for much of New England. At least 6 inches of snow could
accumulate in Boston and other areas east of Interstate 91.
The storm is starting to get organized around Florida thanks to the arctic cold front with the average temperatue for the continental U.S. was 9.1 degrees early Tuesday.
The National Weather Service said
as much as a quarter of an inch of ice and a couple inches of snow are
possible from portions of the Florida Panhandle to eastern North
Carolina Tuesday night and into Wednesday. As the storm moves up along
the coast, temperatures will be cold enough that snow could fall in
South Carolina, as close to the coast as Myrtle Beach.
On Thursday morning, the storm will start to intensify in
the Northeast. The heaviest snow should be in Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia and the Jersey Shore. Snow is expected to start in New York
City around morning commute time Thursday.
Snow should arrive in
New England by noon and then intensify into blizzard conditions in the
afternoon and evening hours. Snow is forecast to wrap up Thursday
morning in the New York metro area and by Friday morning in Maine. Snow
should end in the early morning hours of Friday in the Boston metro
area.
This storm system will see strong winds out at sea and a
similar central pressure to a hurricane. It is an extremely powerful
storm with a very strong wind component that will create white-out and
blizzard conditions.
Blizzards are not a function of how heavy the snow is, but
rather how strong the wind is and how poor the visibility. While it's
not expected to be a "top 10" storm in terms of snowfall totals, it
could still be crippling because of the high winds.
The biggest
threat from this storm is from power outages. Winds up to 40 and 50 mph
could cause power problems, and the extreme cold that follows presents a
very dangerous situation for people without electricity.
The high
in Boston on Saturday morning likely stays around zero and New York
City will stay in single digits. Sunday morning will be the coldest in
the forecast, with a low of 15 below zero in Boston and 2 below zero in
New York City.
Next week, the temperature may finally rise above
freezing in the Northeast, but until then, the freezing line goes all
the way down to the Carolinas and Florida. The majority of the U.S. will
remain in the deep cold for the foreseeable future.
As for the
western states, the National Weather Service said rain will move to
California and the Pacific Northwest by Wednesday evening; above-normal
temperatures are expected to continue across the West Coast.
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