Jan 9, 2012 Noon Update

3:20 PM: Snow Stays South Today; Late Week Storm Update


The weak low pressure that has been mentioned in yesterday's update is staying to the south of the area, and with cold temperatures, will continue to produce accumulating snow for parts of the Central Mid Atlantic, including northern Virginia and Washington DC and further east into Delaware, through the rest of the afternoon and evening hours. This storm is the 2nd time this month that the Mid Atlantic has seen a storm bring a dusting or more of snow, while most of the NYC area has yet to see more than isolated flurries. The snow will stay to our south through tonight, with the entire area staying dry.

This winter's snow drought will last through the rest of the week in NYC as well, and although snow won't fall in NYC itself, more significant changes have taken place in the forecast. The latest models are now trapping more of the cold air over the region with the storm staying more suppressed and separated from the low pressure near the Great Lakes region, resulting in the potential for a widespread mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain across New England away from the coast. There is some uncertainty on how cold the air mass and surface temperatures will be at the start of the storm, although there does appear to be a possibility that the north/western parts of the area, especially towards interior SE NY and parts of Sussex county in NJ, start out with a wintry mix before changing over to rain, with little accumulations at most. Tonight's update will discuss this in more details, as well as the gradual changes slowly beginning to unfold with the pattern later next week and some thoughts on when the first widespread snow of the winter in NYC could take place.

The 5-Day Forecast page has been updated for NYC and further west.