Weekend storm to bring wide variety of weather, travel woes in northeastern US
Extended Weather forecast overview for the Northeast United States
While far from a blockbuster storm, a period of adverse weather conditions ranging from snow to ice to rain and gusty winds will affect the northeastern United States through Sunday.
Just enough cold air will linger to produce snow and ice in some areas.
During the first few hours of the rain, anywhere the ground is cold, patches of clear ice can form and create a dangerous situation for pedestrians and motorists.
The bulk of the precipitation with the storm will affect the central Appalachians and the mid-Atlantic coast into Sunday morning.
The storm will affect New England mainly on Sunday.
Much of the central Appalachians will turn out dry on Sunday, while the mid-Atlantic coast dries out during Sunday afternoon.
While rain will be the primary form of precipitation from the storm in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and even New York City as mild air is forecast to surge in quickly, enough snow and wintry mix can occur to cause slippery conditions for a time in Boston.
The combination of drenching rain and melting snow can lead to urban flooding problems. The flooding will be greatest where piles of snow and ice are blocking storm drains along city streets and intersections.
Fog is another potential problem, due to the extent of snow and ice on the ground. As mild, moist air flows over this surface, locally dense fog may form.
People from northeastern New York state to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine will need to use their snow shovels and plows for this storm as they have done throughout the winter.
A general 2-4 inches of snow is forecast in this zone with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 8 inches over the highest elevations, including some of the ski resorts.
Satellite loop of the northeastern United States. (NOAA GOES-East satellite)
A swath of wintry mix with snow at the onset, then sleet and freezing rain is in store from parts of central and southeastern New York state, northeastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey to southern New England.
In the southernmost part of this swath, snow will be very brief at the start of the storm, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brian Wimer.
"We expect even the wintry mix portion of the storm to be brief as well from southeastern New York to along the southern coast of New England," Wimer said.
"Freezing rain (up to 0.10 of an inch) may accrue on cold surfaces from the Poconos to the Catskills and Berkshires into Sunday morning," Wimer said.
Because of the time of day, when few people are on the roads, impacts related to icy roads may be minimal.
The storm will also whip up gusty winds, causing some limbs to break and leading to power outages.
Winds will be strongest near the eastern Great Lakes, but some locally damaging gusts can occur over the central Appalachians and along the immediate Atlantic coast.
The air progressing eastward in the wake of the storm is chilly, but far from the levels of cold felt this past week.
Temperatures will reach the 50s and 60s over much of the mid-Atlantic this weekend but generally stop in the lower 30s over northern New England. High temperatures will be slashed by 10-20 degrees from Sunday to Tuesday.
Download the free AccuWeather app to stay up to date on the storm including timing with MinuteCast™ in your area.
