Very Cold Fall Weekend, More Early Snows, Too

A large trough is in place over the eastern U.S. and will remain so through this weekend allowing for it to be quite cold for this time of year. Temperatures will be averaging between 15 and 25 degrees below normal!

While the cold air is in place, some moisture will also mix in and that means more early season SNOW; this time in the East. Snow has already been falling for the past day in Pennsylvania and will continue in an "on", "off" fashion through Sunday. Through mid-morning Friday, as much of 6" of the white stuff had been reported. Here is the latest snowfall map for Pennsylvania:

The reason snow will continue for Pennsylvania and likely streak up into portions of New York, too, will be due to an area of low pressure that will sit and spin off of the Delaware/New Jersey Coast Saturday into early Sunday. It will then slowly drift off to the northeast trough Sunday. This low will spin up into an early season Nor' Easter, but without much of the snow compared to true winter time, with abundant rains and strong winds, some Gale Force. Due to the slow speed of the system, it is likely some severe beach erosion and flooding is likely from Long Island to Delaware.

Snow will also fall as far south as the Tennessee/North Carolina Mountains. Occasional snow showers are likely on Saturday for the mountains of Tennessee/North Carolina and the higher elevations (3,000'+) will likely see accumulating snow; my forecast 2" to 4". Here is a live view of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, the highest town in the eastern U.S. at an elevation of 5,506'

Now, the cold won't last for too long. By Monday, a warm-up will begin spreading eastward out of the Plains. This warm-up will continue through mid-late next week before another cold front sweeps eastward (Thu/Fri), but this one doesn't appear to be too strong. Details on this front to follow next week.