Wintry storm to sweep through northeastern US this week

Yet another storm will reach the northeastern United States on Monday; while there will be mostly rain to start, precipitation may end as accumulating snow

The upward trend in temperatures through the weekend will allow most places to start off as rain.

However, colder air is forecast to invade behind this storm, allowing for some areas to see snow showers as the storm moves away.

People from the central Appalachians to the mid-Atlantic coast that head back to work or school on Monday morning can expect wet conditions. Be sure to have an umbrella, waterproof shoes and to spend extra time on the commute. Rain and fog are likely to lead to airline delays in addition to slowdowns on area highways.

Hundreds of thousands of hunters entering the woods for the first day of buck season in Pennsylvania are likely to experience changing weather conditions as it will be wet to start and turn colder and blustery later on.

The rain will spread across southern New England as Monday progresses.

"In northern areas, precipitation is likely to begin as snow or a wintry mix of snow, ice and rain," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson.

AccuWeather meteorologists expect the storm to restrengthen along the New England coast during Monday night and Tuesday. How quickly that strengthening process occurs will determine how much cold air is pulled southward, how far south a change to snow occurs and how heavy that snow becomes.

There is the potential for several inches to a foot of snow from northeastern upstate New York to central and northern New England. The storm may evolve into a nor'easter for New England with gusty winds and a brief period of above-normal tides from eastern Massachusetts to Maine.

"Areas from New York City to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., are not likely to have any snow of consequence on the tail end of the storm," Anderson said.

Farther west, a change to a bit of snow or snow showers is forecast from the Appalachians to the eastern Great Lakes and the eastern end of the Ohio Valley. This includes the cities of Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania, Cleveland and Buffalo, New York. In most cases, this snowfall is expected to be light, but plunging temperatures may cause wet and slushy areas to freeze from Monday to Monday night.

Gusty winds will usher in much colder air throughout the region during Monday night and Tuesday.

Since this air is not moving southward from eastern Canada but rather crossing the open waters of the Great Lakes, temperatures are not likely to dip as low as around Thanksgiving along the mid-Atlantic coast to New England. Some areas from the central Appalachians to the Great Lakes are likely to be a bit colder than the outbreak on Thanksgiving.

Winds may become strong enough to cause some turbulence for aircraft and cause flight delays where winds are blowing across runways over the central Appalachians and the mid-Atlantic region on Tuesday.

Is there an end to the cold, stormy pattern soon?

Looking ahead well into December, it appears a pattern of back-and-forth temperatures is likely with overall conditions remaining stormy over much of the northern U.S.

"Temperatures are likely to average below normal during the first part of the December, but we envision a way that temperatures trend to average to perhaps above average beginning around the middle of the month," according to AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok.

However, milder air will begin to flow from west to east across central Canada.

"Arctic air may become blocked from entering the United States by the middle of December. In its place may be a flow of milder, Pacific air," Pastelok said.

In the meantime, over the next few weeks, demands for heating homes and businesses will remain high, and that could eat into some household budgets ahead of the December holidays.

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