More Northeast Snow Just in Time for Christmas

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

December 23,2012; 3:40PM,EST

A last-minute snowstorm will allow more of the Northeast to experience a white Christmas after all.

It is beginning to look more like Christmas across northern New England, downwind of lakes Erie and Ontario and the central Alleghenies following the late-week winter storm and lake-effect snow.

But there are still plenty of places across the Northeast where the ground is bare and residents are wishing for a white Christmas.
AccuWeather.com has good news for many of those residents with a storm in the works for the Northeast Christmas Eve into Christmas Day.

The storm will be far from a repeat of the Midwest blizzard with a general 1 to 3 inches expected to spread from central and northern Pennsylvania to central and southern New England.

Cities where the snow is expected to guarantee a white Christmas include Williamsport and Scranton, Pa., Albany and Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Boston, Mass., Portsmouth, N.H., and Providence, R.I.
There will also be a light coating as far west as central and northeastern Indiana and southeastern Michigan, including Detroit, on Monday.
While not enough to bring holiday travel to a standstill, a general 1 to 3 inches of snow would still create headaches for travelers.
The snow that falls during the daylight hours of Monday would not be heavy enough to cause problems on roadways, but low-hanging clouds and reduced visibility may delay flights.
Monday evening and night is when motorists will have to use caution when traveling to and from Christmas Eve services. With the loss of sunlight, even a light amount of snow will have an easy time coating and turning roads slick.
Along the Pennsylvania Turnpike and into the northern mountains of West Virginia, a mix of ice pellets and snow threaten to cause travel troubles.
Across central Pennsylvania, including in State College, AccuWeather.com meteorologists are concerned that freezing drizzle will follow the accumulating snow later Monday night.

However, not all of the Northeast will see a white Christmas.
A surge of milder air would prevent anything but rain falling across southern New Jersey, central and southern Delaware, southern Maryland, Washington, D.C., and most of Virginia.
Part rain and part snow will fall from central and northern Ohio and from northern parts of the Virginias, western and central Maryland and southern Pennsylvania to central New Jersey, New York City and southernmost New England.
Kids and those young at heart should not get excited for a white Christmas in this zone. If any snow accumulates, it will be held to under an inch.
As the upcoming storm departs the Northeast Tuesday night, residents and visitors will have to quickly turn their attention to a new storm that will be far more potent.

This second storm will evolve into a major winter storm for the Northeast, complete with howling winds, soaking rain and substantial snow.

Twitter user AymanMohyeldin_ shared this