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News / Winter Weather

Record cold, snow overtakes northeastern US

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

Published May 6, 2020 4:55 PM EDT

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Americans across a large portion of the Northeast are in the midst of an unusually late-season blast of Arctic air courtesy of the polar vortex. Adding to the frigid conditions is accumulating snowfall, another rarity for some places across the region this time of year.

Where the wind is active and during cloudy intervals, AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures can hover 10-20 degrees below the actual temperature during the daytime. It may feel like the temperature is in the 20s and 30s at times even during the midday hours.

Actual nighttime temperatures dipped into the 20s and lower 30s and challenged record low levels for the date in portions of the Great Lakes, Ohio and Tennessee valleys and the central and northern Appalachians on Saturday. Cities from La Crosse, Wisconsin; to Fort Wayne, Indiana; to Cincinnati and Baltimore all surpassed previous record lows early Saturday morning.

AccuWeather meteorologists recommend covering your warm weather plants or bring potted plants indoors at night until the pattern eases up later next week.

"If a hard freeze or heavy frost occurs in portions of the Ohio Valley, central Appalachians and mid-Atlantic region, where buds have broken out, significant damage could occur to fruit trees, vineyards and berry farms," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Randy Adkins.

The surge in temperatures this past weekend may have been just enough to bring some vegetation out of dormancy across the northern tier. In a few extreme cases, temperatures could dip as low as the upper teens in the coldest spots across the northern locations this weekend.

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Agricultural interests may need to implement every means possible, such as wind machines, smudge posts and sprinkler systems, to raise the temperature a few degrees around crops.

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"Old-timers in the region typically don't plant their tomatoes, peppers and other warm-season plants until around Memorial Day weekend to reduce the chance of frost or freeze damage," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Dombek, adding that this is sound advice for this year in particular.

Farther south, record lows, short of frosty levels, in the 40s and 50s will be challenged on one or more nights from central Texas to the Carolina coast.

Not just one round of snow

Perhaps the wildest part of the weather pattern will be the rounds of snow coming for some locations. Even though snow has fallen and accumulated in May in the past, those events are generally very small in areal coverage and are usually a "one and done" type of phenomenon.

This graphic shows the latest calendar day snowfall on record, which may not include multi-day snowstorm totals.

Several locations in the New York City area each reported a trace of snow, making the month of May just as snowy, or snowier, than the month of February was in locations like Islip, Newark and Central Park.

All 6 of our climate sites (EWR, NYC, BDR, LGA, JFK, ISP) reported a T of snow early this morning. Officially, the month of May has the exact same amount of snow as the month of February for 5 of these sites.

Islip, NY has officially had a snowier May than February. #aMAYzing

— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) May 9, 2020

New York City recorded a trace of snow at its climate station in Central Park less than two hours into Saturday morning. This trace of snow ties the record for latest recorded snowfall in the city, last set in 1977.

Some snow will continue to fall and accumulate from a storm through Saturday evening across much of Maine and into New Brunswick.

The risk for the heavier snow totals, along with a higher risk for power outages and travel disruptions, will be anticipated in this area. In New Brunswick, there can be an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ï¸ of 14 inches.

Meanwhile, snowflakes will mix in with rain showers as chilly air whips over the Great Lakes.

Following the storm-related snow to end this week, another unusual event will occur -- lake-effect snow targeting parts of the Snowbelt on Saturday. Usually during May, the water is too cold and the air not cold enough for lake-effect snowfall.

In this case, only 0.2 of a percent of the Great Lakes is covered by ice and the air is going to be cold enough to trigger bursts of snow.

"In the middle of winter, lake-effect snow often organizes into bands of heavy snow. When lake-effect snow occurs in spring, the stronger sun disrupts the organization of persistent bands, and causes more of a 'cellular' effect, similar to pop up thunderstorms in the summer," explained AccuWeather Meteorologist Jake Sojda.

"Still, while the persistent lake-effect bands that bury communities in the winter aren't expected, very heavy bursts of snow and gusty winds can quickly reduce visibility and bring a quick coating on some grassy areas," Sojda added.

Where heavier bursts of lake-effect snow squalls are a bit more persistent an inch or two can accumulate on grassy surfaces, mainly in the higher terrain from portions of Michigan to northeastern Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York state into Saturday morning.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

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AccuWeather Winter Weather Record cold, snow overtakes northeastern US
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