1:30 PM | "Clipper" train to keep right on rolling; next snow threat for the Mid-Atlantic comes Saturday night and Sunday

Discussion

The “clipper” train will keep right on rolling over the next several days and each one can produce accumulations despite having limited moisture content. Disturbance number 1 has now cleared the South Jersey coastline and it concentrated its heaviest snow in the region from DC to the Delmarva Peninsula to South Jersey intensifying as it moved eastward with an inch or so in the DC metro area, 5 or 6 inches in the Delmarva (e.g. Dover), and as much as 8 inches at the South Jersey coastline (e.g. Cape May). Also, snow showers and even heavier snow squalls that lasted 20-30 minutes passed through Southeast Pennsylvania (Bucks and Montgomery Counties) during the mid-morning hours with a quick coating to half an inch in many spots.

It appears that disturbance number 2 will be somewhat more widespread than this morning’s event and, although it won’t snow the whole time, this will be a longer lasting threat with snow possible from Saturday night into Sunday night. Unlike the first event this morning where the heaviest snow was generally south of the Mason Dixon line, this next event will probably bring more snow north and east of the PA/MD border - perhaps in the 1-3" range, and less south of there. Yet another disturbance is destined to affect the Mid-Atlantic region on Monday night and that could be followed by another one Tuesday night/early Wednesday.

This is certainly an interesting and fast-moving pattern that’ll keep meteorologists busy over the next several days and accumulations are possible with each one of these systems. The computer forecast models will have great difficulty handling all of these different and quick moving upper-level waves and will no doubt throw in some surprises with respect to timing and amounts - so stay tuned.