Storm hits, then polar vortex uncorks
The most severe winter weather yet will assault the US Northeast late this week.
Unforgiving cold has punished the eastern third of the United States for the past 10 days. But the most severe winter weather conditions yet will assault the area late this week.
First, a large and powerful storm will today hammer coastal locations from Georgia to Maine with ice and snow. By tomorrow, the exploding storm will, in many ways, resemble a winter hurricane, battering easternmost New England with potentially damaging winds in addition to blinding snow.
Forecasters are expecting the storm to become a so-called “bomb cyclone” because its pressure is predicted to fall so fast, an indicator of explosive strengthening. The storm could rank as the most intense over the waters east of New England in decades at this time of year.
In the storm’s wake, the mother lode of numbing cold will crash south — likely the last but most bitter in the series of brutal blasts since Christmas Eve.
The storm is forecast to begin taking shape off the coast of Florida today, unloading hazardous snow and ice in highly unusual locations not accustomed to such weather.
The National Weather Service has already posted winter storm watches from Lake City, Florida, to Norfolk, Virginia. It is then expected to explosively intensify, buffeting the MidAtlantic beaches and eastern New England, where winter storm watches have also been hoisted.
The National Weather Service office serving northeast Florida and southeast Georgia cautions that a nasty a mix of light freezing rain, light sleet, and light snow is expected to develop today “with significant icing possible”. In Charleston, 2.5cm to 7.5cm of snow and sleet is forecast, where the Weather Service warns to “plan on difficult travel conditions”.
From Norfolk to the Maryland and Delaware beaches, including much of the southern half of the Delmarva Peninsula, 7.5cm to 15cm of heavy snow are predicted from today to tomorrow.
Farther inland in the Mid-Atlantic, near Interstate 95, the storm’s exact track will be highly consequential.
Current computer models suggest most — if not at all — snowfall will occur east of Washington and Baltimore. But small shifts to the west could bring some snow to these cities.
By the time the storm reaches the ocean waters east of Long Island and eastern New England tomorrow, it will
be explosively intensifying.
The storm’s central pressure will have fallen 55 millibars in just 24 hours — an astonishing rate of intensification.
“Some computer models are projecting a minimum central air pressure of below 950 millibars at its peak, which would be nearly unheard of for this part of the world outside of a hurricane,” writes Mashable’s Andrew Freedman.
“For comparison, Hurricane Sandy had a minimum central pressure of about 946 millibars when it made its left hook into New Jersey in 2012.”
The storm’s enormous circulation will help draw several lobes of the polar vortex, the zone of frigid air meandering the North Pole, over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast by Saturday and Sunday. Temperatures are forecast to be the coldest of the winter so far. On Sunday, subzero cold is forecast over almost all of New England.
Finally, temperatures are forecast to gradually thaw by early next week.