7:00 AM | *"Clipper" is gone...attention now turns to an east coast early weekend storm*
Paul Dorian
6-Day Forecast
Today
Becoming partly sunny, cold, highs in the upper 30’s
Tonight
Partly cloudy, cold, lows in the mid 20’s
Friday
Mostly sunny, cold, mid 30’s
Friday Night
Increasing clouds, cold, snow after midnight, mid-to-upper 20’s
Saturday
Snow changing to rain or a mixed bag and then possibly changing back to all snow, mid 30’s
Sunday
Mostly sunny, breezy, cold, low-to-mid 30’s
Monday
Mostly cloudy, cold, chance for more snow, low-to-mid 30’s
Tuesday
Partly sunny, quite cold, near 30 degrees
Discussion
Now that the relatively weak “clipper” system has moved away from the Mid-Atlantic region, attention will turn to the next event and this could be a significant east coast storm. After a couple of quiet days to end the work week, copious amounts of moisture will ride up the coast late Friday night and Saturday and this should lead to accumulating snowfall in much of the I-95 corridor. While there will be no Arctic air in place ahead of the storm - usually a pre-requisite for significant snow in the I-95 corridor - there will be incredible intensification of the surface low pressure system and this process can actually “generate” its own cold air. For an idea as to how rapidly this storm may intensify and how deep it may become as it treks from the Mid-Atlantic to New England coastline, here are the 24-hour central pressure readings as predicted by yesterday's European computer forecast model between late Friday and late Saturday: 1003 mb --> 996 mb --> 984 mb --> 969 mb --> 959 mb (44 millibars in 24 hours; 959 millibars equals 28.30 inches). Stay tuned, there are still a couple of days to go before the event and the positioning of the "rain/snow" line is certainly not set in stone which is critical to snowfall totals.