By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist
March 23,2014; 9:00PM,EDT
The start to spring does not mean an end to fierce blizzards unfolding as is evident with a blizzard threatening eastern New England and Atlantic Canada at midweek.
The blizzard is expected to swipe eastern New England and slam Atlantic Canada Tuesday night through Wednesday night.
The rest of the East Coast will escape the worst of the storm, but there is still nuisance-to-disruptive snowfall in store for the spine of the Appalachians, Virginia and the rest of the Northeast.
The blizzard could easily halt travel and cause school cancellations and other significant disruptions to daily routines.
While there is no question that a large swath of Atlantic Canada will be targeted by the fierce blizzard, the coverage area across eastern New England will be determined by how close the storm tracks to the coast.
The current projected path of the storm puts southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod, and Down East Maine at greatest risk for fierce blizzard conditions.
A track closer to the coast would expand the blizzard threat to more of eastern New England--including the I-95 corridor--and eastern Long Island, while a track farther offshore would cause the blizzard to only graze Cape Cod and Down East Maine.
Those in Norwich, Conn., Providence, R.I., Boston, Mass., Portsmouth and Manchester, N.H., Portland, Maine, are among the residents in eastern New England who should keep a close eye on this storm in the event the blizzard area is expanded westward.
However, there can be near-blizzard conditions in these cities for a time during the height of the storm. This threat does not include New York City, where up to a few inches of snow will fall.
RELATED:
AccuWeather.com Winter Weather Center
What is Bombogenesis?
Winter Weather-Related Watches, Advisories
Snowfall totals across far eastern Long Island, Rhode Island, southeastern Massachusetts and Down East Maine will be on the order of 6 to 12 inches with a potential for some communities to top a foot.
Strong winds in the heart of the blizzard will severely blow and drift the snow around, making driving extremely dangerous, if not impossible, and possibly overwhelming road crews. Motorists driving during the height of the storm run the risk of becoming stranded on interstates and highways.
The strong winds alone, which could gust between 40 and 60 mph, are possible of causing tree damage and power outages. The highest wind gusts will be along the coast.
The winds will also kick up extremely rough seas across the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Coastal flooding may ensue along the coasts of New England and Atlantic Canada.
The blizzard will not take shape in time to severely impact the rest of the East Coast; however, that does not mean nuisance-to-disruptive snowfall will be avoided.
The storm is currently in its infant stages and will continue to spread nuisance snow from the northern Rockies to the central Plains through Monday. That snow will spread across the Midwest to the spine of the Appalachians Monday night.
Snow amounts during this time will generally be on the order of a coating to an inch or two.
As the storm reorganizes along the East Coast on Tuesday, some snow will develop across the mid-Atlantic, southern New York and Connecticut. Outside of the mountains, there will likely not be enough cold air in place for more than wet snowflakes across the Carolinas.
Most of the snow that falls during the daylight hours of Tuesday will have a hard time sticking to roads.
"Where the snow falls at night and first thing in the morning, the odds are greater for an accumulation on roads. However, the warming effect of the March sun during the midday and afternoon could only be negated by a very heavy snowfall rate," stated AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.
Such heavy snowfall is expected to occur on an isolated basis until the evening and overnight hours of Tuesday when the storm begins to rapidly strengthen.
Paving the way for the return of snow to the East Coast will be yet another blast of arctic cold.
On Social Media
- Joshua Miller · Top Commenter · Undercover Agent, posing as Oil Changer at Curtin Livery at Curtin Transportation
First time I have EVER seen Norwich, CT in an article related to ANYTHING,, other than local news... that's worrisome,, I live just a few miles from norwich. Wouldn't it figure,,, my first vacation in 8 months and,,, its going to blizzard... 
Aaron Ginther · Top Commenter · Rustburg High
So VA gets no snow? Have fun with your snow, new england. DC and southward is probably DONE for the season.
Frank Baldassare · Belknap College
The models for the most part are even farther east then a couple of days ago, all that NJ will get will be from the 500 mb feature and really nothing by the coastal storm that will track well outside of 40/70. Potentially Nj might see 1-3 inches...but since its falling during the day, little or nothing may accumulate in most areas, as this maybe considered more of an elevation event. By early tues nite, most if not all the snow maybe over with. Too bad, it is a waste of a good storm. We really could have had fun with this if it tracked just inside the heavy snow box. I cant complain..I have had almost 69 inches where I live in south-central NJ. I would take this every year. Lets bring on spring.
Adam Lowe · Top Commenter
The Models have trending east, the snow map for RI is way over done, If the 18Z NAM is correct then all we will get is some high clouds. GFS is now well outside the benchmark too offering no more than flurries and the EURO which was showing a great storm a few days ago is now just a few inches. Going by the pattern the forecast is easy it will be another glancing blow for RI. I do not understand way the Mets are still adverting 6-12 or 12-18 when the models are clearly not showing this and are in fact trending to a more dry and sunny solution.
Scott Malo · Top Commenter · Monson, Massachusetts
Hmmm. Interesting. The National Weather Service has central MA in the "we don't know yet" amounts. I am assuming that is what this report says. Still a ways out to start nailing totals down yet. I think the European has been the most accurate?
Keith Woodard · Top Commenter · CEO & Founder at KWITS, LLC
Scientists are now blaming Climate Change for the storms in the Southern Indiana Ocean (Roaring 40's) which are hindering the efforts to locate the missing Boeing 777.
Michael Lance Crowne · Top Commenter
Nobody knows. Storm looks to be heading out to sea. It's the secondary low that will give some East Coast cities snow. VA.... MD..... no snow. NYC 2-4..... Philly..1-2........ maybe.
Vincent Merkel · CUNY Brooklyn
ghee just like the weather channel said three days ago..good job accu weather for scaring the wits out of people in ny for the last two days......nice to see you caught up with the forcast models.
Grant McGuire · Top Commenter · Western Connecticut State University
At least in southern NY, all the previous snow has melted. So our ground will be snow-free again in no time.
Ray Waterman · Works at Michellin
geez wonder if me and the fam should head to nyc for our vacation from nova scotia.
No comments:
Post a Comment