Could we see a snow storm this weekend?

 

I went into little more detail on this possible storm yesterday.

There's no doubt that we have been cold here in the northeast. We've had a few injections of true arctic air impact our region. The region has seen several clippers move through That produced widespread light snow across large parts of the region, But not everyone has seen snow from them. Lake effect has been flying downwind of lake Erie and lake Ontario a few times this winter with moderate accumulations. Many parts northern Pennsylvania,  New York State and northern into central New England have  nickel and diming their way to  building a snow pack. 

All the snow across Canada and the northern tier of the US is making it easier for this polar and arctic air to make it into our region. And the cold has certainly been making hay while the sun shines.

But while we've been cold there have been no major snowstorms. 

We have our current clipper moving through the region this has brought light to moderate snow amounts  across Western and northern Pennsylvania Across New York state Into northern and central new England, This has also brought rain to a large part of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey Into southern New England and along the New England coast. Behind this clipper the trailing arctic front is going to bring an arctic air mass back into the region.

We're going to have another clipper come through for later Friday into Saturday. This one  is gonna be fairly moisture starved; but there could be some light snow showers in various parts of the region. It is also going to Kick off more lake effect coming down off  the great lakes. This will reinforce the cold air in place over the weekend keeping us very chilly. 

These images from tropical tidbits Shows all the very cold arctic air up over the Northwest Territories. This air mass will be working its way south and east behind all these clippers. This will allow very cold air to be sitting over the region heading into the weekend.

This will help set the stage for  the potential for a storm Saturday night into Sunday. We're going to have another clipper come down out of Canada And then move across the northern tier of the US. As I said yesterday, this one has the potential to become a regional snowstorm. But several things have to happen for that to occur. If we can build the ridge out west high enough it would help energize this storm as it's approaching our region. This would help the storm dig and dive further south. Giving a better opportunity for more in the way of snow across a large part of our region. Yet another thing to watch will be the orientation of the trough. If it has a positive tilt It would be more likely to have the storm track east and head out to sea, Taking the chance for a lot of snow with it.  If the trough becomes negatively tilted the storm would have a much better opportunity to move off the coast and then come up the coast and possibly redevelop into a nor'easter. This would bring the region a moderate to heavy snowstorm.

I've been seeing several sites talking about this becoming a big powerful storm. While that is a possibility, the storm is going to have a long hill to climb to get there. This pattern is very progressive. That is gonna make it very hard for the trough to turn negatively tilted and allow this storm to dig in. Right now I really do think this is gonna be another light (for some moderate) snow event that will impact parts of the region but not the entire region.

High pressure will built in for Monday  temperatures will be quite cool. Then for Tuesday we will see temperatures moderating. Both days will see a chance for a few scattered snow showers along with some lake effect snow bands trying to set up. Right now next Wednesday is looking to see temperatures become quite warm with the region being dry.