The windy and wet storm that swept through New England and knocked out power to tens of thousands has departed, quickly dragging cold air back into New England behind it. Matt Noyes has a look at what to expect in the coming 24 hours…and teases ahead to today’s Insights video set to post later this morning, where we’ll examine next week’s chance of not one but perhaps a few storms.
The departure of a strong storm from New England into Eastern Canada has swept a cold air across the Great Lakes and Northeast U.S., firing up lake-effect snow off all Great Lakes. Heaviest snow is expected to fall downwind of Lakes Erie and Ontario, where portions of Western and Northern New York will receive a foot or more of snow, though Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula will also see accumulating lake-effect snow, amounting close to half a foot, with locally higher amounts. Farther south, a weak area of low pressure will drive light snow across Illinois and into the Northern Ohio Valley by day’s end, though accumulations will remain light as the system weakens when it encounters a large dome of high pressure with double-barrel centers over Minnesota and over the Piedmont. Meanwhile, the Western United States will see expansive precipitation with an incoming Pacific storm, spreading heavy rain at the coast east as light snow over the Great Basin, where snow accumulations of generally 1-3″ are expected, though higher amounts will fall in Central Oregon where 3″-6″ is possible, and substantially higher amounts are expected from Mount Shasta to Lake Tahoe, California, where higher terrain will see over a foot of new snow in the next 24 hours.
The departure of New England’s storm system has opened the door to blustery conditions Thursday, with west-southwest winds gusting up to 40 mph, creating daytime wind chill values in the teens across Northern New York and New England, and 20s for many others, while actual high temperatures reach the 30s and 40s. Meanwhile, early snow in the mountains of Western and Northern New England will fade as drier air arrives, while lake-effect snow off Lakes Erie and Ontario will accumulate a foot or more of snow downwind of each lake in Western and Northern New York. A new jet stream level disturbance will prompt the development of numerous afternoon cumulus clouds from the Capital District of New York into New England and may interact with some lake moisture from the Great Lakes, allowing clouds to build sufficiently for scattered snow showers Thursday afternoon, even into Southern New England. Thursday night low temperatures will bottom out as cold as the single digits from Lake Placid to Northern New England, particularly where snow is on the ground, while Southern New England reaches the teens and 20s with a subsiding wind. New England and New York.
