Snow precedes bitterly cold blast in the Northeast
The morning map showed a high pressure area in northern New England and a low pressure area approaching Chicago. A cold front extends southwest from the low pressure. As that system moves eastward it will send rain into the Ohio Valley and then the mid-Atlantic coastal region and snow farther inland. The coldest air mass of the season to come out of Arctic Canada will move to the Midwest tomorrow and tomorrow night and then move east. However, as the temperature map suggests, it won't get as cold on the East Coast as it does in the Midwest. The extreme cold will be delivered via southward extension of the polar vortex, as shown on the third map . One piece of good news: after Groundhog Day there should be a significant warmup from the Midwest into the Northeast early next week.
Snow will spread into much of the Northeast tomorrow except for the I95 corridor, where it may rain at first and change to snow at the end tomorrow night. Bitterly cold Arctic air will follow.
