1:55 PM | Nationwide snow cover jumps to ~65%; accumulating snow here on Saturday
Paul Dorian
Discussion
The 1st day of winter brought a powerhouse cold front through the Mid-Atlantic region and the overall weather pattern has been quite active ever since. A snowstorm is raging today across much of New York State and New England with "white-out" conditions in many spots. Numerous other parts of the nation have been hit with accumulating snow in recent days and only three states in the Lower 48 are snow-free: Florida, South Carolina and Delaware. There has even been an unusual white Christmas experienced earlier this week in southern cities like Oklahoma City, OK and Little Rock, AR. Indeed, about 65% of the nation is currently covered by snow and that percentage has increased dramatically from early in the month when only about 13% of the country had snow cover. It is also quite a change from a year ago at this same time when only about 24% of the country had snow cover.
The next storm to affect the Mid-Atlantic region will occur on Saturday and it is likely to produce accumulating snow all along the I-95 corridor from DC to Philly to NYC. My early estimate is for Saturday snow accumulations to be on the order of 2-4 inches in and around the DC, Philly and NYC metro regions, and snow can accumulate all the way to the New Jersey coastline by the latter part of the day. The Saturday storm will take a track farther south and east compared to its predecessor which generated more rain around here than snow. This projected path for Saturday’s storm will produce an overall colder atmosphere in the I-95 region compared to the conditions for yesterday’s storm. The storm on Saturday will move rather quickly from near the southeastern Virginia coastline early in the day to a position about one hundred miles or so east of the New Jersey coast by Saturday evening. Snow is likely to begin here early Saturday morning and may wrap up rather quickly during the mid-to-late afternoon hours as the storm moves quickly to the north and east.
More cold and storms will follow in this active weather pattern as we head into the early part of 2013. Stay tuned.