Phase one of the storm has begun. Snowfall rates are impressive…most impressive in this first band. While the snow is coming down good now, we’re still expecting a lull in the action between 9 and midnight tonight. It’s after that the second, and most important, slug of snow comes late night and into tomorrow.
Wind? Definitely. Heavy snow? Only for a few hours. Blizzard? Certainly possible. Downgrading the amounts? Um, yeah…about that.
Heaviest snow and most intense part of the storm lies before us. That we know. The other side of this is the fact that the second part of the storm is the most fickle. A massive storm like this has many facets. One of those is this is banding snow on the back (or western side) of the storm. We live off experience as meteorologists, and one doesn’t have to look that far back to see how this “backside snow” can skunk the forecast. Recall the first blizzard this year in NYC, where 2-3 feet was forecast, and a measly 4-8 inches fell. We’re not fearing that outcome here, but throwing all your eggs in one basket and hoping for a foot of snow (to bring you to 12-16″) on the backside of a storm is a fool’s errand.
* Snow tapers 9-11pm tonight, then returns 1-3am
* Burst of heavy snow in the early morning, then tapering by lunch
* Fierce wind expected late tonight into tomorrow – all day
* Frigid air will create dangerously cold wind chills throughout tomorrow and tomorrow night. Layer up when you clean up
Finally, I stand by my feeling that the pattern will be shifting next week. While I don’t think we’ll melt all this snow in a shake, we will be missing snowstorms and watching the days lengthen.
Fair trade for all this snowy mayhem.
Pete