The interior of the Northeast, New England, is bracing for heavy snowfall
While some major cities will miss snowfall, others are set to get quite the storm, said Tom Neziol, a winter storm specialist at FOX Weather.
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New York – A developing storm that is expected to become the first snowstorm of 2024 could bring the first significant snowfalls in two years to several cities along the East Coast and heavy rains in the South, all of which translates into chaotic weekend travel across the East. United State
The storm is developing on Friday along the Gulf Coast. While computer forecast models still vary widely regarding snow and rain amounts, the entire East Coast will experience gusty winds and rain.
Millions of residents from the Carolinas to Maine are under winter weather warnings before the worst of the weather arrives. New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., are just outside the warning areas, but could see an occasional mix of rain as temperatures approach the freezing mark.
Live weekend and Easter tracker: Latest forecast, live radar, snowfall totals and more
Winter storm timeline
Saturday
On Saturday, the low pressure system is expected to move east-northeast as it organizes and strengthens along the east coast.
At its northern end, snow will fall quickly across the Ohio Valley and central Appalachia. Several inches of snow are likely to fall at this time. Warm air moving over cold air trapped near the surface may allow freezing rain to fall across the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia.
Exclusive FOX Model Futuretrack for Easter Sunday coming up this weekend. (Fox Weather)
Sunday
The storm is expected to move off the East Coast near the Carolinas and continue heading north to skirt the New England coast on Sunday.
Heavy snow and gusty winds will continue Sunday morning in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, New England, New Jersey and the upper elevations of the Central Appalachians.
“As Sunday morning arrives and the system moves across Cape Cod, a strong easterly flow of a lot of moisture released from the ocean will affect southern New England. It will be cold enough to produce significant amounts of water, and it will be cold enough to produce significant amounts of water,” said Tom Niziol, a winter storm specialist at FOX Weather. “That, combined with strong winds, could lead to some power outages, especially across parts of Massachusetts and going into southern New Hampshire and southern Maine.”
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Where the snow and ice will be heavier
The FOX Forecast Center expects snowfall to be heaviest in the higher elevations and communities west of Interstate 95 from south of the Appalachian Mountains across the U.S.-Canada border.
By the time the storm system moves away from the United States on Sunday, many locations will have received more than 4 inches of snow, with some areas picking up between 4 and 12 inches of new snow.
There are some communities outside Boston that could see more than a foot of snow, but that could change as more computer data is received.
As the Atlantic Ocean modulates the air mass, the heaviest snow is expected to fall away from large cities such as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.
“From New York to Philadelphia, you won't have any real major problems with snowfall. It will be warm enough to mainly rain,” Niziol said.
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However, forecast models show the New York tri-state area receiving up to 3 inches of snow through Sunday morning.
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There is also an increased threat of freezing rain in central and southern Appalachia, the Fox Forecast Center said. Parts of southwest Virginia, western North Carolina, northern South Carolina and northeast Georgia could see significant ice, putting a slippery glaze on pavement and weighing down tree limbs and power lines.
“Despite the ice storm, a lot of confidence is building in this part of the forecast,” Merwin said. “We know we're going to have a treacherous warm layer trapped in this storm and freezing temperatures on the ground. It raises red flags across the board.”
How to measure ice accumulation
Preparations should be made for those who live and work in the upper elevations of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachian Mountains in the mid-Atlantic due to concerns of some minor ice accumulations in those areas.
Most locations will pick up less than 0.10 inch of snow, but some areas may see more.
What is an ice storm?
The highest risk of 0.10-0.25 inches of ice accumulation is found in western North Carolina and Virginia. Communities like Asheville, Greensboro, and Mount Airy in North Carolina and Pulaski, Roanoke, and Staunton in Virginia can expect to see more snow.
“A quarter inch of ice is not something to be scoffed at or joked about,” Merwin continued. “You want to make sure you're prepared.”
When was the last noticeable snow storm in the I-95 corridor?
Snow lovers should feel hopeful about the weekend, even several days away, as the current storm track is promising. We have to look to late January 2022 to find the last notable snow storm on the I-95 corridor. From January 28 to 29, 2022, a Nor'easter buried parts of the region under snow and even caused blizzard conditions.
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The 2024 storm will develop off the Gulf Coast and head offshore around the Carolinas. The 2022 Nor'easter developed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Carolinas and traveled north several hundred miles off the East Coast. (Fox Weather)
The cold air present in 2022 turns all rain into snow. Not only did Delaware and eastern New Jersey see more than a foot of snow, but winds of 50 to 60 mph whipped around the snow, turning the storm into a blizzard, according to the National Weather Service. Blizzard conditions pushed into New England on January 29.
Boston measured 23.8 inches of snow. New York City saw 8.5 inches, while Baltimore got 1.5 inches.
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The storm could end record snow-free streaks for many cities along the East Coast
This nearly two-year streak without snow in Philadelphia broke the previous record of 661 days without a single snowfall, which ended in 1973. New York City has long since broken its old record of 383 days without a single snowfall. One snowfall. It ended in 1998.
New York City saw just 2.3 inches of snow during the winter of 2022 through 2023. That's more than a 2-foot deficit compared to average winter snowfall and a record for the lowest annual snowfall total.
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Philadelphia and Washington each saw less than half an inch, leaving those cities with deficits of 22.8 inches and 13.3 inches, respectively. Even cities that saw snow only got a fraction of what they normally see. Boston saw 12.4 inches of snow during the winter of 2022-2023, more than 3 feet below average.
