Doppler Dale's Weather Daily: December 7, 2011

System that delivered snow that accumulated in the grassy surfaces from Arkansas into northern Mississippi is quickly lifting northeastward and will continue to do so through this evening and tonight. That means the back-edge of the precipitation will lift northeast quickly, too. The change over to snow line won't move much the next few hours generally running southwest to northeast from northeast Alabama along the spine of the Appalachians and up into northern Vermont. This will confine the heaviest snowfall with this system from northern West Virginia through western Pennsylvania and upto into south-central New York and continuing into Vermont (includes Morgantown, Johnstown and Binghamton and Albany)where total snowfall accumulation of 6" to 12" is possible.

I-95 Corridor Snowfall (Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston)
Plenty of rain is occurring east of the heavier snow across the I-95 corridor but this area will also get into a bit of snowfall as the system lifts northeastward and allows a rapid intrusion of cold air to flow in changing rain over to a brief period of snow. Where the snow comes down moderately to heavy for a brief period of time accumulation will be possible. Here are some specifics of when I expect the change over to occur and how much accumulation is possible:

Washington DC: (10PM TO MIDNIGHT, ENDING BY 3 AM, UP TO 1/2")
Baltimore, MD: (10PM TO MDINIGHT, ENDING BY 3 AM, UP TO 1/2")
Philadelphia, PA: (May briefly mix with or change to a brief period of snow, Midnight to 2 AM before ending with NO ACCUMULATION)
New York, NY: (May briefly change over to a period of snow between 3AM to 5AM before ending with NO ACCUMULATION)
Boston, MA: (Brief change over possible between 6 AM and 8 AM with minor accumulation possible, under an inch)

Note: More significant accumulation with a band of 1" to 3" will set up to the west-northwest of these cities by only around 20 to 30 miles and accumulations will continue to rise further north and west one travels.

Plains-MidWest-Ohio Valley Snow Chances
A reinforcing shot of chilly air and some upper level support is helping to produce a band of some light snow across portions of eastern Montana into the Dakotas and this will streak into Nebraska and western Iowa tonight and then into Missouri, Illinois Indiana and Ohio on Thursday. Little if any accumulation is expected; however, the best chances of seeing any accumulation will be along and north of I-80 from Chicago to Cleveland where 1" to 2" could fall in spots.

Longer Range
Looking out into the Day 5 through Day 10 period the pattern will try to shift west a bit with the core of the cold and activity closer to the spine of the Rockies while ridging will try to build in the Southeast and that would allow for some mild conditions from the Southeast to the Mid-Atlantic while cold and snowy from the Intermountain West through the Rockies.

Video Weather Briefing
I will conduct a video weather briefing to discuss the weather pattern and update on the snow in the East and the quick moving system in the Plains tonight, at 9pm CT. Please join me here to catch it.

Thanks for reading,

"Doppler" Dale