Northeast faces snowy start to weekend with slippery roads, travel woes
A snowstorm tracking from the southern U.S. will deliver enough snow to the Northeast this weekend to cause travel headaches and will have people reaching for their snow shovels yet again.
The streets and highways of Atlanta, Georgia, were blanketed by heavy snow in the midst of a major winter storm on Jan. 10. Travel was chaotic as dozens of motorists were seen stranded on the roads.
A storm tracking offshore after impacting the southern United States has kept the heaviest snow and ice south of Washington, D.C., but it will still produce accumulating snow and slippery travel from the mid-Atlantic and New England, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
The latest round of snow and travel problems will continue in the Northeast through Saturday. The storm has already caused major travel problems in the Southern states and brought slippery conditions and travel delays in the Midwest on Friday.
This time, the storm and its heavy snow will slide farther to the south than its predecessor from this past Sunday night and Monday. The stiff west-to-east steering breezes over the Eastern states should prevent the storm from significantly strengthening into a powerhouse nor'easter.
The storm will not have enough time to throw heavy snow through the coastal Northeast major cities. Instead, precipitation will fall up to a couple of hundred miles at sea, but still brought a stripe of several inches of snow to the interior Southeast states and the lower part of the mid-Atlantic.
Near and north of Washington, D.C., including Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City, moisture from a weak storm in the Midwest will be the main producer of the snow. In these more northern areas, the snow is likely to be intermittent and spotty in nature.
Even with a light amount of snow, slow and slippery travel on the roads is anticipated, along with a significant number of airline delays due to de-icing operations. As aircraft and crews are displaced by the southern storm, the number of flight cancellations may climb even before the storm arrives in the Northeast.
"While a general 1 to perhaps 3 inches of snow is forecast, there can be pockets where a coating or a dusting of snow could be all that falls from the storm, especially along the upper mid-Atlantic coast," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said.
Often, the first coating to an inch of snow from a storm causes the majority of accidents on streets and highways. Experts urge caution and patience when driving in snowy conditions.
A coating to an inch of snow is also possible across much of New England from the Midwest storm. A period of moderate snow can occur on parts of Long Island, New York, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, if the southern storm is able to ramp up quickly.
In the wake of the storm Saturday evening, the flow of Arctic air will resume across the Midwest and Northeast well into next week.
An Alberta clipper storm will roll southeastward from this weekend to early next week with snow for the Upper Midwest. While much of that snow may tend to dwindle upon reaching areas east of the Appalachians, there can be a coating of snow that extends well away from the Great Lakes region in the form of flurries and heavier snow squalls.
Lake-effect snow will pick up substantially as the clipper storm moves by, with the likelihood of feet of snow where the bands persist.
Some of the coldest air of the winter is likely to settle in across the Midwest and the Northeast early next week, given the origin of the Arctic air and the extent of the increasing snow cover in the regions.
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