Sneaky storm could drop a bit of snow on cities in Northeast
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„Rain may change to snow around Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City even though temperatures may still be above freezing during Friday night,” Pastelok said.At this point, little accumulation is expected even if wet snow mixes in with the rain or a complete changeover to snow occurs in the Interstate 95 corridor late Friday night or Saturday.Temperatures are forecast to climb into the 50s from New York City to Washington, D.C., and well into the 40s in Boston and southeastern New England Friday. The mild conditions will make it difficult for snow to pile up in this swath by Saturday morning, but there can be some wet snowflakes for a brief time.”The changeover to accumulating snow is more likely well north and west of I-95,” Pastelok said.
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The traditional higher-elevation locations such as the Pocono, Catskill, Berkshire, Adirondack, Green and White mountains have the best chance of picking up an accumulation of wet snow from the developing storm.There is a remote chance of a small, slushy accumulation of snow areas on non-paved surfaces in the hilly areas of eastern Pennsylvania, outside of the Poconos, and the hills in northwestern New Jersey.Farther west, as colder air moves in over West Virginia and the western parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York state, snow showers can make for tricky travel conditions during Friday night and Saturday. Conditions in this area can vary from breaks of sunshine to the risk of brief heavy snow and poor visibility with little notice for motorists rolling along at highway speeds.
The snow showers can end up bringing up to a few inches of snow over the higher elevations from western New York state to West Virginia, where the air and ground will be colder and the snow will be more persistent.
Colder air is forecast to settle in across the Appalachians, mid-Atlantic and New England as the weekend progresses and into early next week.
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However, with that cold air passing over the open waters of the Great Lakes and taking an indirect route into the Northeast, temperatures are only forecast to dip to average levels for the middle of January, rather than significantly below average.
Normal highs for the middle of January range from the upper teens in northern Maine to the upper 40s F in southeastern Virginia. Normal lows range from near 10 in northern Maine to the lower 30s in southeastern Virginia.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Snow-struck Madrid struggles with cleanup as severe frost grips Spain
Snow-struck Madrid struggles with cleanup as severe frost grips Spain
FILE PHOTO: Heavy snowfall in Madrid
By Elena Rodriguez and Belén Carreño
MADRID (Reuters) – Authorities struggled to clear ice and fallen trees from the streets of Madrid on Tuesday and temperatures in parts of Spain hit record lows after a snowstorm wrought havoc across the country at the weekend.
Early jubilation at the historic snowfall, which saw skiers gliding through the streets and mass snowball fights, gave way to frustration as most public transport remained stalled and pedestrians avoided the icy streets.
„You in Madrid are not ready for this,” said Demetrio, a Ukrainian living in Madrid, who did not give his last name. „If there is snow, it should be cleaned up the next day.”
More than 800 soldiers have been deployed to help clear the city, where many roads are still blocked after Storm Filomena felled some 150,000 trees, cut supply lines and left supermarket shelves bare.
Only the occasional police car or taxi braved the city centre, while just 28 of Madrid’s more than 200 bus lines were operational.
With waste collection on hold, rubbish bags piled up alongside snowdrifts.
„At my home pipes are frozen so we don’t have water … it’s crazy,” said 29-year-old media worker Amaia Huerta.
By Monday evening, intercity train services had resumed and Barajas airport had almost returned to capacity.
Fresh produce was still in short supply at three large, central supermarkets on Tuesday afternoon, although the regional government said the situation had begun to normalize after 1,200 delivery trucks reached the city’s main wholesale market.
Agricultural association UPA said farmers in the region would lose millions of euros from damage to crops and buildings, and called for extra state aid for the sector.
As the snow turned to ice amid temperatures as low as -10 degrees Celsius overnight, Madrid’s health department reported 2,000 injuries from falls in the past 24 hours and urged people to stay at home.
Outside Madrid, temperatures fell even further during the night, with Spain’s lowest, -25.4C, registered in the province of Teruel to the east, a local record.
Two homeless men who died in Barcelona on Monday night were confirmed as the latest victims of cold weather, which has so far killed five, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a news conference.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Belén Carreño, Elena Rodriguez, Guillermo Rodriguez; Writing by Nathan Allen; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
Expect something we haven’t seen in South Florida in 2021 — rain, ahead of cold front
South Florida hasn’t seen any real rain so far in 2021, but that could change by Wednesday.
Miami-Dade, Broward and the Florida Keys have the best chance for rain on Wednesday, with the National Weather Service in Miami forecasting a 50% chance (40% in the Keys) ahead of the next cold front.
After highs in the upper 70s Tuesday, temperatures will be “seasonally cool” by midweek, the weather service said. Expect lows of 62 degrees Thursday morning, and chillier Friday at 58, according to CBS4 meteorologist Lissette Gonzalez.
Wednesday will be the warmest day, with a high of 80 and low of 68 degrees, she said.
Friday will see temperatures notch up a bit, with the weekend looking nice with highs of 72 and lows of 66. Spotty showers are possible — a 30% chance, the weather service said — on Saturday and Sunday.
The cold front could bring rougher seas, though, the weather service said in a hazardous weather outlook. There’s a moderate risk for rip currents at Palm Beach County beaches into the week.
Intensifying storm to bring weather turnabout to Midwest
Intensifying storm to bring weather turnabout to Midwest
A storm threatening heavy rain and flooding concerns in the Northwest into the middle of this week will strengthen and take aim at the Midwest and bring a dramatic change to the weather. The system will unload heavy snow, generate gusty winds and send a piercing blast of cold air into the region late this week.
The winter weather will follow a taste of unusual warmth, causing a case of weather whiplash for millions of Americans. Temperatures will climb as much as 25 degrees above average during midweek ahead of an abrupt change to harsh, midwinter conditions from portions of the Plains to the Great Lakes region.
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At Pierre, South Dakota, temperatures are forecast to plunge from a high just shy of the record of 60 F set in 1983 on Wednesday to the middle 20s Thursday night with AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures in the single digits. The normal high and low temperatures at Pierre are 30 and 10 degrees, respectively. Even though the temperature change will be less extreme farther to the east, the storm will bring temperatures back to near average in its wake.
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The storm will race across the southern Canada Prairies during Wednesday night and then take root around the Great Lakes on Thursday, where it is forecast to stall and unload snow into Friday from the eastern parts of the Dakotas and northeastern Nebraska to northwestern Ontario.
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„The heaviest snow, on the order of 6-12 inches (15-30 centimeters) with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 16 inches (40 centimeters), is forecast from northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin to part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the northern shores of Lake Superior in Ontario,” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson.
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Enough snow to shovel and plow can extend from along the Red River of the North along the Dakota/Minnesota border to northwestern Iowa and central Wisconsin.
As a cold front advances from the storm, a brief band of snow, snow showers or a wintry mix is forecast to progress from eastern Iowa, northern and central Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin during Thursday afternoon and evening to portions of Indiana, Michigan and western Ohio during Thursday night. Southern Ontario, eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania will face wintry precipitation Friday.
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While this band of snow and mixed precipitation is not expected to bring much in the way of an accumulation, just enough can occur to briefly coat roads and sidewalks and make for slippery walking conditions and sudden changes to driving conditions on area highways.
Around Chicago, conditions may quickly trend from a high well in the 30s during the day Friday to the 20s with a brief period of snow and slippery conditions during the evening hours.
As the storm system intensifies, winds will ramp up as well, adding to travel dangers. Gusts from 70-90 mph are anticipated over parts of Montana and Wyoming on Wednesday.
„Wind gusts between 70 and 80 mph are likely outside of the snowfall area from the eastern slopes of the Rockies in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado to the western and central parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas during Wednesday night and Thursday,” AccuWeather Senior Storm Warning Meteorologist Eddie Walker said.
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Winds this strong can create dangerous handling of high-profile vehicles and can raise the potential of vehicle rollovers.
„Gusts between 30 and 50 mph will ramp up from Thursday to Friday within the snow area on the Plains and Upper Midwest, west of the Great Lakes. This can create blizzard conditions due to blowing and drifting of snow on the ground,” Walker said.
The combination of gusty winds and colder air moving in with the storm can take a lot of heat away from roads and sidewalks at a fast pace. This flash freeze-up can make driving and walking especially dangerous due to the rapidly changing weather conditions from Thursday to Friday.
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Very windy conditions are forecast to persist farther west over the Plains and eastern slopes of the Rockies into Friday.
As the colder air begins to pass over the relatively open waters of the Great Lakes, lake-effect snow bands are likely to develop. The exact alignment and persistence of these bands will determine the amount of snow that falls from location to location. Since the air coming in is not tremendously cold, lake-effect is not likely to be intense, but only a small amount of snow can make for slippery and dangerous travel.
The greatest impact from lake-effect into Friday night is likely west of lakes Erie and Ontario. During Saturday and Saturday night, some lake-effect snow is likely to extend to areas east of lakes Erie and Ontario as well.
The eastward progression of the cold air associated with the storm is likely to be delayed a bit along the Atlantic Seaboard. However, a storm moving northward along the leading edge of the cold air may be able to bring rain that changes over to snow across part of the interior mid-Atlantic and New England. The chance will exist for some snowflakes to fly in the major cities along Interstate 95 from northern Virginia to Maine.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
The Polar Vortex Could Unleash the Coldest Weather of the Season Next Week
Hello, 2021. 😬❄️
Get out your parkas, people. Most of the country has enjoyed a relatively mild winter so far, but those cozy temperatures won’t last long. AccuWeather reports that the polar vortex could cause a „major shift in the weather pattern” during the second half of the season. In other words, it’s about to get very chilly.
While the phrase „polar vortex” sounds dramatic, it’s actually nothing out of the ordinary. This meteorological term describes the big mass of cold air that constantly hovers around the Arctic, spinning counterclockwise like a hurricane. The polar vortex usually remains above the North Pole, but occasionally it weakens. When that happens, it moves south and circulates above the United States—bringing a whole lot of Arctic air with it.
Meteorologists who have been monitoring the polar vortex predict that’s exactly what’s about to happen over the next few weeks. Oh, and it gets worse: The blast of cold air will pack some extra „shock value” because it’s following several weeks of „well-above-average temperatures” across the northern half of the U.S.
„The anticipated waves of Arctic air will have their cold tasks cut out for them at first, but once the pattern gets rolling, a major surge in heating demand is expected, and winter storms and lake-effect snow that become intertwined in the cold blasts can hit travel and daily activities hard in parts of the Midwest and East,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Samuhel.
So, when should you plan to bundle up? The initial rush of freezing air is forecasted to sweep the country before the end of the month.
„An Arctic cold front is expected to move through the northern Rockies and northern Plains on January 18-19 then the eastern and south-central parts of the U.S. between January 20 and 21,” Samuhel said. „Even though temperatures may remain above average in the wake of the leading edge of the cold air, it will bring a 10- to 20-degree Fahrenheit drop as the front passes through.”
Yes, he really did say an „Arctic cold front” is coming. Happy 2021.
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