Powerhouse Storm to Hit New England; Also Watching Storm for Next Week

Some of us saw a beautiful weekend and a taste of spring but don't be fooled, Spring is not here yet. Another active couple of weeks are in store for the eastern U.S. Currently, a storm is putting down accumulating snow across Texas, again. This time the heavy snow is further south than the storm a few weeks ago that brought the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex 8" to 12". This storm will continue to progress southeastward into the Gulf of Mexico, tonight. Accumulating snow will make it into central Louisiana and then fade. The energy of the system will transfer into a new area of low pressure that will ride northward along the Atlantic coast. A new area of light accumulating snow will develop across the western Carolinas on Wednesday. It will continue to spread northward as the storm moves northward. That means more snow for the Mid-Atlantic but much, much less than in previous storms this winter, only a couple of inches at best. The storm merges with additional upper level energy by Thursday morning as the low approaches the Mid-Atlantic and WOW!

This set up an Impressive Nor'Easter for Thursday into Friday, possibly the strongest storm I have seen in my short 15 years in forecasting. Along and north of I-80 in Pennsylvania and north and eastward through New York, New Jersey and throughout New England, massive snow is likely with winds that will howl, 20-40 MPH, too. Forecast models are indicating a potential minimum pressure of the system as 980 millibars or 28.93" of mercury. The "Great Blizzard of 1888" had a minimum central pressure of 982 mb and had winds in excess of 45 mph. Snowfall with that storm was between 40" and 50" in spots. A scenario similar appears to be setting up. Will we see snowfall in excess of 40"? Possibly yes. At this point the most likely location for the most extreme snowfall will be from northern Pennsylvania through much of New York and into New England. My first forecast for New York City is 12" to 18".

Now for next week, I have been watching the long range models since last week for a possible storm during the first few days of March. Knowing how the models typically work, their solutions traditionally flip and flop and go all around but the key is to watch their trends and look at the BIG picture. One thing that is appearing to me is consistency and a general trend that a potential BIG storm is brewing for the start of March. The energy that will help develop this storm is currently south of the western tip of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

So where is this storm to spin up? It appears it will be another Gulf system that will track up the Eastern U.S. coast. Still a lot of questions regarding the storm such as the intensity of the upper level energy and specific track but there is the potential for yet another accumulating snow in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Definitely a watcher. I will keep you up-to-date on this storm over the next few days.

Lastly, if you live in the Tennessee Valley make sure to tune into WAAY 31 News tonight at 10 PM for the Tennessee Valley Spring Outlook. For the rest of you, I will post the national Spring Outlook by Thursday evening. If all goes well I will have it posted on Wednesday.