Winter across the northeast has gotten off to an early start as forecast. Parts of northern into central New York State and northern New England, have seen above average snowfall accumulation for this point in the season. Most of the region has seen at least a little bit of snow. But, parts of eastern Pennsylvania into northern Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey have been in a relative snow hole. But that should end at some point over the next couple of weeks. Maybe as early as this coming Sunday But we will see!
Images credit tropical tidbits
The northern polar jet is very weak and very wavy right now. The disorganized polar jet along with the polar vortex being split, one piece is over northern Canada the other piece is out over Siberia. Is the reason we have been so cold. For over a week now I've been talking about how this week is going to consist of several clippers in the northern jet stream impacting the Northeast and Middle Atlantic region. We've already had three and we have 3 more to go. I will go into these clippers later in this post. But something I've also been talking about is that the pattern is going to relax a little bit heading towards the middle of the month.
By the middle of next week I am sure I'm going to be hearing about winter being over. The winter solstice (Astronomical winter) will begin on Sunday December 21 at 10:03 AM EST; and people are going to be talking about winter being over before it even begins on the calendar; But as I've been saying This warning Won't hang around for too long And by the time We get into near Christmas temperatures should start to become cold again And the pattern looks to remain active all through the next few weeks. The last part of December And through most January could be quite cold and snowy.
What about the rest of the clippers this week?
We have high pressure overhead, that is providing this arctic chill. On the satellite we can see the Sun is giving way to clouds as our next clipper approaches out of the Great Lakes And midwest. As this continues to approach When's will become breezy Later this afternoon into tonight, With winds of 5-15 mph and gust upwards of 25-30 mph. the cold air is slowly gonna push out of here Later today Into tomorrow. As is approaching clipper into western Pennsylvania New York State will see a general 1-3 inches, We have 2-4 " possible across tug hill Into the Adirondacks. This disturbance is going to weaken as it pushes across our region. Across eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland Delaware, New Jersey into New England. Snow showers will become much more scattered.
The infrared satellite shows That the northern stream is very active loaded with clipper systems. Our next clipper is dropping out of Canada into the Northern Plains. This clipper will be Impacting us Tomorrow and into Thursday. Wednesday 's clipper is gonna be much more potent than the current one moving through. But it will also be further north. We will have a leading warm front that will warm up our temperatures to above freezing Southern New York State, southern New England Pennsylvania and into the northern Middle Atlantic. This will change any snow over to a mix and or rain. Those northern areas away from the coast will hang on to the snow the longest especially in the higher elevations. Much of New York State into northern and central New England will see a general 2-4" of snow , While the higher elevations of northern parts of the region from the Tug Hill, Adirondacks, Greens, Whites and parts of northern Maine see 4-8 plus inches of snow. Northern Pennsylvania and northwest New Jersey will likely pick up 1-3" of snow before the changeover to rain. the rest of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Southern and southeast New England and up along the New England coast Could see things start as little bit of snow but these areas will change over the rain These areas could see a trace to 1⁄2 an inch or so before the rain. When the trailing cold front comes through Temperatures to go into free fall and plummet with the return of arctic air. With the front we can see some snow showers,flurries and possibly a few snow squalls.
Thursday is going to be very cold, with snow showers across northern parts of the region and lake effect falling downwind of lakes Erie and Ontario, elsewhere It looks to be mainly dry. Friday we will see a trough move through with a southern disturbance passing to our south. The southern disturbance could bring some snow mix to Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey ;away from the Great Lakes on Friday the rest of the region should be fairly dry. On Saturday we are going to have low pressure moving over the Great Lakes. This is going to bring another bout Of lake effect snow for those downwind of the Great Lakes. Outside of a few snow showers here and there most of the region shouldn't be too bad with just a few snow showers. For tomorrow into the weekend the lake effect machine is gonna be cranking out Lake snow. Those under the most intense parts of the band could end up with quite a bit of snow. Saturday night and Sunday we're going to have a disturbance move through the region; depending on temperatures this has the potential to bring some snow maybe into the coastal plain. Depending on how it tracks interior parts of the Northeast could see moderate to perhaps heavy snow accumulation in spots. High pressure will move in overhead for Monday and Tuesday This should finely bring an end to this lake effect snow.
