7:00 AM | ****Intense ocean storm to bring accumulating snow and strong winds to the eastern Mid-Atlantic****
Paul Dorian
6-Day forecast for the Washington, D.C. metro region
Today
Mainly cloudy, cold, occasional snow is likely to break out later today and small accumulations are even possible, highs in the mid-to-upper 30’s; Calm conditions in the morning, N-NW winds around 5 mph this afternoon
Tonight
Mainly cloudy, cold, periods of snow likely, becoming windy, lows not far from 20 degrees
Saturday
Mainly cloudy in the morning with periods of snow likely, partly sunny in the afternoon, very windy, cold, low-to-mid 20’s for highs
Saturday Night
Clearing skies, bitter cold, windy, lower teens for late night lows and brutal wind chills
Sunday
Mainly sunny, cold, near 30 degrees
Monday
Mainly sunny, not as cold, upper 30’s
Tuesday
Mainly sunny, a bit milder, upper 40’s
Wednesday
Mainly cloudy, mild, chance of showers, near 50 degrees
Discussion
An ocean storm will intensify rapidly over the next 36 hours or so and it will have a big impact on the Northeast US and also on much of the eastern Mid-Atlantic region. Some snow can break out here today associated with a frontal system, but the steadier, heavier snow associated with the developing storm should fall from this evening into Saturday morning. The winds will increase in intensity as well during this event as a very strong pressure gradient will form between the strengthening low pressure and strong high pressure over southeastern Canada. A very cold (and dry) air mass will be in place during much of the storm resulting in a drier, fluffier type of snow and temperatures tomorrow night can plunge to the upper single digits in some spots. In fact, this cold air mass will dive all the way down into southern Florida this weekend on the heels of the storm. The estimate for snow accumulations across our region is 1-5 inches with the higher amounts in that range to the south and east and the lesser amounts to the north and west. A couple of notes, there is likely to be a sharp snow accumulation gradient with this storm and a small shift in the currently projected storm track and/or the timing of the intensification can make a big difference in these snowfall estimates in a given spot…so stay tuned.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Arcfield Weather