Rare accumulating late-April snow
By
Elliot Abrams, AccuWeather chief meteorologist
Published Apr 18, 2020 1:57 AM EDT
A low pressure area moving from the Ohio Valley to the Middle Atlantic coast has caused snow from northern Ohio across the northern half of Pennsylvania Friday afternoon, and this will spread across interior southeastern New York and parts of New England overnight. At 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, it was 52 with cloudiness in Philadelphia (where elevations run from about 6 feet above sea level to 452 feet on Summit Ave in Chestnut Hill), but 31 at my residence in the middle of Pennsylvania (elevation 1,400 feet). This is what it looked like at 7 p.m. ET.
It only took a couple of hours of large-flake wet snow to make it look like a winter wonderland.
If you have kids at home (our "kids" are 48 and 45 years old), you may be concerned about screen time. I suspect those guidelines have been altered under current stay-at-home orders! The following picture shows how the snow had its own screen time. In this picture, the snow in the foreground is clinging to one wall of our screened-in porch.
Snow clings to screen; a railing is behind the snow. The snow above the railing may look like it is on the ground, but it isn't. Ground snow in this picture is most easily seen in the middle of the right side of the picture. Snow-draped evergreens are in the background.
In the next picture, note the shadow near the dogwood that will bloom in May. It is not caused by the sun, Instead, the wind is blowing from left to right, and the tree blocks the snow from reaching that area just downwind of it.
If the shadow was caused by the sun, you would expect more snow in the shadow than elsewhere.
One other interesting quirk appeared a little while before the time of the last photograph:
I'll call the two patches on the evergreen bush pseudo snow flowers. Those two spots were the only places where snow did not immediately melt.
This GFS forecast for this (Friday) evening at 8 p.m. shows the snow area in blue, This turned out pretty well near my house because the snow changed to rain just before 8 p.m. As the storm moves east of the coast tomorrow morning (in the picture below), colder and drier air will move south behind it. However, note the lingering precipitation from West Virginia down past Tennessee. This hints at perhaps another low-pressure center forming in that area. The model supports that idea by showing the fringe of a second area of precipitation from Long Island across extreme southeastern New England Saturday night.
In any case, Sunday looks dry across the Northeast:
A stiff breeze will prevent it from feeling much warmer even though afternoon temperatures should be 10-15 degrees higher than tomorrow. Note the rain developing in the South Central states.
The storm forming in the South on the map for Saturday should be moving off the Virginia-North Carolina coastal area on Monday morning.
IF YOU LIVE IN THE GULF STATES, THERE COULD BE A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM OUTBREAK ON SUNDAY, AS SHOWN HERE:
Most of next week looks chillier than average, but the area hit by the most recent snow may not see a similar even until next fall or winter!
This map for Friday, May 1, shows a total transformation. There is a high pressure area off the Southeast coast and the boundary between cold and warm air extends from Kansas to Maine. If correct (and remember this is two weeks out), it will be at least up in the 70s and 80s from the Gulf States to Central New England!
Report a Typo
Weather Blogs / Northeast US weather
Rare accumulating late-April snow
By Elliot Abrams, AccuWeather chief meteorologist
Published Apr 18, 2020 1:57 AM EDT
A low pressure area moving from the Ohio Valley to the Middle Atlantic coast has caused snow from northern Ohio across the northern half of Pennsylvania Friday afternoon, and this will spread across interior southeastern New York and parts of New England overnight. At 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, it was 52 with cloudiness in Philadelphia (where elevations run from about 6 feet above sea level to 452 feet on Summit Ave in Chestnut Hill), but 31 at my residence in the middle of Pennsylvania (elevation 1,400 feet). This is what it looked like at 7 p.m. ET.
It only took a couple of hours of large-flake wet snow to make it look like a winter wonderland.
If you have kids at home (our "kids" are 48 and 45 years old), you may be concerned about screen time. I suspect those guidelines have been altered under current stay-at-home orders! The following picture shows how the snow had its own screen time. In this picture, the snow in the foreground is clinging to one wall of our screened-in porch.
Snow clings to screen; a railing is behind the snow. The snow above the railing may look like it is on the ground, but it isn't. Ground snow in this picture is most easily seen in the middle of the right side of the picture. Snow-draped evergreens are in the background.
In the next picture, note the shadow near the dogwood that will bloom in May. It is not caused by the sun, Instead, the wind is blowing from left to right, and the tree blocks the snow from reaching that area just downwind of it.
If the shadow was caused by the sun, you would expect more snow in the shadow than elsewhere.
One other interesting quirk appeared a little while before the time of the last photograph:
I'll call the two patches on the evergreen bush pseudo snow flowers. Those two spots were the only places where snow did not immediately melt.
This GFS forecast for this (Friday) evening at 8 p.m. shows the snow area in blue, This turned out pretty well near my house because the snow changed to rain just before 8 p.m. As the storm moves east of the coast tomorrow morning (in the picture below), colder and drier air will move south behind it. However, note the lingering precipitation from West Virginia down past Tennessee. This hints at perhaps another low-pressure center forming in that area. The model supports that idea by showing the fringe of a second area of precipitation from Long Island across extreme southeastern New England Saturday night.
In any case, Sunday looks dry across the Northeast:
A stiff breeze will prevent it from feeling much warmer even though afternoon temperatures should be 10-15 degrees higher than tomorrow. Note the rain developing in the South Central states.
The storm forming in the South on the map for Saturday should be moving off the Virginia-North Carolina coastal area on Monday morning.
IF YOU LIVE IN THE GULF STATES, THERE COULD BE A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM OUTBREAK ON SUNDAY, AS SHOWN HERE:
Most of next week looks chillier than average, but the area hit by the most recent snow may not see a similar even until next fall or winter!
This map for Friday, May 1, shows a total transformation. There is a high pressure area off the Southeast coast and the boundary between cold and warm air extends from Kansas to Maine. If correct (and remember this is two weeks out), it will be at least up in the 70s and 80s from the Gulf States to Central New England!
Report a Typo