Zone 5 (Southern NJ) Update: Significant snow through tonight

Regional analysis suggests the development of a coastal storm will continue over the next few hours. The most recent near term/mesoscale models continue to remain relatively steady with a continuation of moderate to heavy snow over Southern New Jersey through the afternoon hours. Currently, the juxtaposition of moisture and lift is creating a substantial area of moderate and heavy snow throughout the area.

Increasing lift in the atmosphere will be supported by the developing storm system and the presence of a very notable jet streak in the atmosphere’s upper levels. This will allow precipitation to expand to the northwest of the low pressure area, which will be off the coast of the Mid Atlantic states during the middle part of the day today.

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10am Update Zone 2: Snow increasing in intensity

Regional analysis suggests the development of a coastal storm will continue over the next few hours. The most recent near term/mesoscale models continue to remain relatively steady with the development of heavier snow over the next few hours over Long Island. The increase in intensity will be gradual, as lift and moisture in the atmosphere begin to increase. Snow accumulations will also be gradual to occur through 12:00pm.

Increasing lift in the atmosphere will be supported by the developing storm system and the presence of a very notable jet streak in the atmosphere’s upper levels. This will allow precipitation to expand to the northwest of the low pressure area, which will be off the coast of the Mid Atlantic states during the middle part of the day today.

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Offshore Storm Brings Snowfall for Coastal Areas Today

Low pressure off the Southeast coast early this morning, will track quickly northeast today. Snow will overspread from the southwest to northeast across most of the region this morning.  The low will slowly intensify today and have a lot moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. But the low track well south and east of 40/70 benchmark. This will keep the brunt of the storm mostly offshore.

However, lift from upper-level jet and mid-level disturbance are anticipated to enhance some moderate to possibly heavy banding over snow particularly for coastal sections by early this afternoon. Heaviest snowfall is expected over parts of Central and Eastern parts of Long Island and Connecticut and over Southeast NJ where 6” of snow and greater is mostly likely fall. The National Weather Service has issued Winter Storm Warnings for these areas.

snowtotalsmap

Snowfall map issued Friday night

Further northwest, latest guidance early this morning, indicates some low-level dry air with north-northwest winds may cause sharp cut-off in snowfall totals especially just of west of the Hudson River. At this time, we continue anticipate about 3″-6″ for NYC and Nassau and back towards I-95. Just northwest of these locations, snowfall totals will drop off quickly. But if low-level dry air wins out, these amounts may be lower  with far less snow farther northwest We will keep monitoring for these trends today and update as necessary. Otherwise mostly cloudy skies are expected today with high temperatures in the lower to middle 20s.

Snow will begin tapering off late this afternoon and this evening, as the storm moves further into Atlantic. It will turn colder behind this storm temperatures dropping into teens over region overnight. Skies will clear later tonight, as high pressure builds into region. Sunday will be partly sunny, but very cold, blustery with highs in the middle to upper 20s.

Significant snowstorm likely near the coast on Saturday

The rollercoaster with the model runs has continued today, with regards to Saturday’s winter storm. However, for the most part, guidance continues to trend west, and there are some reasons to believe that will continue. There is still a limit as to how far west this can go, though, and the cutoff to the west looks pretty sharp, so this may only be a “major” snowstorm for Eastern Long Island. Still, it’s looking like a snowier Saturday than first thought a few days ago.

Generally speaking over the past few days, the models have become much more impressive with the strength of the initial shortwave that entered the US from the Pacific. It’s now in the southern stream and tapping into a lot of Gulf of Mexico moisture, leading to some strong thunderstorms in the deep South. Sometimes what happens here is that once the models realize that there is plenty of convection going on, the latent heat in the atmosphere increases, which leads to higher heights along the East Coast and thus further northwest shifts. This appears to be happening in today’s model guidance.

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