A major winter storm is forming and is expected to hit much of the East Coast of the United States this weekend, bringing rain, strong winds, and potentially the first significant snowfall of the season.
The storm also represents the first chance in nearly two years for an accumulation of more than one centimeter of snow in some of the major cities in the Northeast that are accustomed to a white winter, but have experienced mild, snowless winters in recent years.
It is still too early to say which cities will see snow or rain, let alone how much snow may fall. What is known is that it could disrupt travel plans, whether by air or land.
Rain will begin Thursday night (4) in central Texas and move eastward, passing through the Southeast and parts of the Mid-Atlantic. This storm could cause flooding problems in the South.
For now, forecasting models agree that the storm will reach the Mid-Atlantic on Saturday and then the Northeast on Saturday night and Sunday, where there is the possibility of significant snowfall due to the cold air. However, the models diverge on the amount of snow that may fall and where.
With heavy precipitation forecasted, the main question is where it will fall as snow and where it will fall as rain, especially along the highly populated I-95 corridor, from Washington, DC, to Boston.
If at least one centimeter of snow falls in the major cities along the I-95 corridor, it will end a nearly two-year period without snow in the region’s major cities.
Only 2.3 inches of snow fell in Central Park, New York, throughout 2023, the lowest amount of snow ever recorded in the city in a year, according to the National Weather Service. This is a deficit of more than 60 centimeters compared to the average snowfall for the winter season.
The same happened in Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
Philadelphia and Washington D.C. recorded less than half an inch, leaving these cities with a deficit of 22.8 and 13.3 inches, respectively. Even the cities that saw snow had only a fraction of what they normally receive. Boston saw 30 centimeters of snow during the 2022-23 winter, over a meter less than average.
Much of the US is experiencing a warmer-than-average fall/winter. As a result, snow cover, or the amount of land covered by snow, is at its lowest level in North America since 2005, according to NOAA data.
Source: CNN and Fox Weather