Winter Prepares To Visit The Northeast
Written By: Robert Millette
A coastal low will develop into the first Nor’Easter of 2015 this weekend as the first real snowfall for the year will hit sections of the Northeast region. By late Friday, low pressure will develop over Georgia and pass off the coast of the Outer Banks Saturday morning. Rain will begin on the Eastern Shore and Southern sections of Maryland and in Delaware Friday afternoon. While it will be mostly rain in these areas, snow will begin to fall in the Eastern panhandle of Maryland overnight with a mix and possible icy situation near the Baltimore and D.C metro areas. These areas will cool and begin to change to snow with the exception of right along the coastline of the Chesapeake. Extreme Northern areas of the Eastern Shore and Delaware will also begin to transition to a mix overnight as snow begins to move into New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
By Saturday morning, snow should have moved into the NYC metro area and the coastal areas of Connecticut and Rhode Island. By noon time on Saturday, snow should arrive in Boston with a rain/snow line setting up south of there as the Cape and Islands will see rain along with the New Bedford/Fall River metro region along the South coast of Massachusetts. Snow and rain will be tapering off or have already ended in Maryland, Delaware and Southern New Jersey by this time, but another area of precipitation will move into Coastal portions of this area for a time on Saturday afternoon.
During the afternoon, snow will move into the Southern and coastal areas of New Hampshire and Maine as the storm passes Southeast of Nantucket and moves toward Nova Scotia. Precipitation should wind down during the afternoon in New York and Saturday evening in the Boston metro region.
While exact totals are not set in stone at this time, several inches of snow can be expected from an area starting Northwest of DC and Baltimore passing through Philadelphia and NYC on towards Hartford and Boston. Locations north of Boston will see a drop off in the amounts of snow as this storm will be out at sea and not pass close enough to the coastline to give them significant snowfall.
Winter Storm Watches have been posted for Hampshire, Worcester, Central and Northwest Middlesex, Western Essex and Western Norfolk counties. 4-7 inches of snow are expected on Saturday in this area by the National Weather Service. I expect this area to expand to include more Eastern locations as certainty increases. Winter Weather Advisories will be posted as the timeframe approaches.
Beyond this weekend’s storm, an Alberta clipper-type system looks to rapidly develop in the Monday/Tuesday timeframe and may bring more snow to the region. This storm will need to be watched closely for further developments.