NEW YORK – The Northeast is bracing for an onslaught from a nor’easter this weekend, which is expected to be the East Coast’s first major winter storm of the year.
About 35 million Americans from Georgia to Maine are under winter weather alerts as the storm could bring heavy snow, strong winds and dangerous ice.
Several inches of snow is likely across swaths of the interior Northeast and New England, with impactful snow totals along the northern Interstate 95 corridor, including Boston. Perhaps there is even enough snow in New York City to be the city’s largest snowfall in two years – though the bar is quite low.
WEEKEND NOR’EASTER LIVE TRACKER: LATEST FORECAST, LIVE RADAR, SNOWFALL TOTALS AND MORE
The nor’easter is beginning its development as a storm in the southern U.S. on Friday, with rain, snow and severe storms.
On Saturday, this area of low pressure will organize and strengthen as it moves across the Southeast, where heavy rain is expected. To the north, where colder air will be in place, snow is expected to break out from the Ohio Valley and Central Appalachians into Pennsylvania.
The storm will peak Saturday night into Sunday, impacting the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states. At this point, the strong Northeast wind will make the storm a nor’easter, according to the FOX Forecast Center. Heavy snow is expected in a region generally from Pennsylvania to New England.
However, the FOX Forecast Center said many factors of the forecast could still change. Nor’easters are notoriously difficult to predict as they are always a balance between warm and cold air. The I-95 corridor is particularly tricky due to its proximity to warmer ocean waters and its sensitivity to wind direction based on the placement of the low-pressure system.
In this case, warm air in the mid-levels will wrap around the system, making the rain-snow line uncertain for major cities along the I-95 corridor.
West of I-95, temperatures will stay cool enough for all snow, and the big winner of the storm will be upstate New York, northeastern Pennsylvania and New England. It is here that the heavy snow will linger the longest, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
Cities such as Boston and Worcester in Massachusetts, Manchester in New Hampshire, Hartford in Connecticut, Albany in New York, Providence in Rhode Island and Scranton in Pennsylvania have a high likelihood of seeing 6-plus inches of snow. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, should have no problem ending its record snowless streak.
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The snow is expected to be wet and heavy versus dry and powdery. Heavy snow and strong wind gusts may lead to downed trees and power outages.
According to the latest forecast, temperatures along the I-95 corridor south of New York City will remain warmer than expected. This means that the current record streak of consecutive days without an inch of snow is likely to continue in Philadelphia and Baltimore, according to the FOX Forecast Center said.
It is an incredibly tricky and uncertain forecast for New York City as the city will be on the rain-snow line for much of the storm. While it has a chance of breaking the streak of no 1-inch snow days, it is far from certain.
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It’s not snow or rain but ice that will be an issue with this nor’easter as it passes near the Appalachian Mountains on Saturday. Cold air will dam against the mountains while warm air advances above it. This will likely create dangerous freezing rain.