Winter rolls in a week early…..
The NorthEast had snow today and Buffalo last week….
Nearly 16 million people from Arizona up to Montana and across to Minnesota were under either a winter weather advisory or winter storm warning Monday morning, as a major winter storm continues to inch across the country this week, forecasters said.
The storm is expected to reach the Great Basin and the Desert Southwest by Monday, the Weather Service said, with those areas forecast to get up to two inches of snowfall an hour, which could make travel difficult.
By Tuesday, forecasters with the service said, the system could develop into a major winter storm from the central High Plains to the Upper Midwest, which could result in “multiple days of significant impacts to travel and infrastructure due to snow, blowing snow and freezing rain.” The Weather Service emphasized that “travel may become impossible” and warned that snow accumulations could be between six and 12 inches. Higher amounts, near two feet, were expected in parts of South Dakota and Nebraska. Accumulating ice was also a concern.
In the Sierra Nevada, snow fell at a rapid rate of roughly three inches per hour over the weekend, blanketing roads and creating “nearly impossible travel” and “near-zero visibility,” the service said….
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Chances for snow will return later in the week as the major storm system across the U.S. spins off a coastal storm.
“The likely development of a nor’easter off the Mid-Atlantic coast brings a threat for wintry weather and potentially heavy snowfall across interior portions of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic,” the prediction center forecasters said Monday.
The most reliable forecast computer models agree that a nor’easter will form from this storm system on Thursday in the mid-Atlantic region but show that the storm will track close to the shoreline in what is often referred to as a coastal hugger. Inland areas will get cold enough and have the opportunity to see bountiful snow from this system.
However, when a storm system like this hugs close to the coast, it most of the time pushes enough warm air off the water to keep the major cities along the coast of the Northeast above freezing, which means cities like New York can most likely expect more of a rainy mess Thursday into Friday morning….