Feb 9, 2013 Forecast Update

Forecast Update:

Following last night's blizzard, which dumped significant to excessive amounts of snow across most of CT and parts of Long Island with lower amounts to the west, skies have cleared with a high pressure moving through tonight and tomorrow. Cold temperatures are expected tonight, dropping into the mid to upper 0s for NW NJ and interior SE NY, upper 0s to mid 10s across northern NJ, southern CT and most of Long Island, with mid to upper 10s closer to NYC. Mainly sunny skies are expected for Sunday with highs in the low to mid 30s.

The next storm to affect the region will be on Monday. A low pressure tracking through the Midwest tonight, where blizzard warnings are in effect, will track towards the Great Lakes and southern Canada on Monday, bringing a warm front through the region on Monday morning. Enough cold will be left over for interior parts of the area to start out with light freezing rain. Ice accumulations are expected to mostly end up under 0.10 inch, although even light freezing rain can cause hazardous conditions. Interior areas will change over to rain by the mid morning hours, with temperatures rising into the low to mid 40s across most of the area for highs, ending up coolest towards interior areas with highs near or a little over 40 degrees. Moderate rain is expected across the entire area through the mid afternoon hours, with drier conditions likely to return by the evening. Rain totals are currently expected to end up between 1/4 and 1/2 inch.

The next storm to affect the region will be on Wednesday into early Thursday; this storm is not expected to be nearly as strong as today's storm, but will still be capable of producing at least a light to moderate snowstorm in parts of the region. The main question at this time is how far north the storm ends up; some models keep the storm well south of the area, while the GFS is currently siding with a northern outcome with a snowstorm in parts of the central Mid Atlantic with the NYC area in the northern end of the storm. At this time, the forecast is for most of, if not all of the snow from this storm staying south of the area; keeping in mind this is still several days away, however, additional changes with the models are expected, and it is still possible that the storm ends up closer to the area with some more impact. Stay tuned for more information on this potential storm over the next few days.