A series of winter storms will impact the eastern US with heavy snow over the next several days. From Friday, March 10, through to Wednesday, March 15, more than 6″ of snow is expected to fall at this time across much of eastern New England, the New York City Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC metro areas, all of New Jersey and Delaware, much of Maryland, much of Pennsylvania, eastern West Virginia, western Virginia and portions of eastern Virginia, the higher terrain of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee and western North Carolina, and portions of east central North Carolina.
Storms will impact these areas later tonight into tomorrow, again on Sunday, and again next Tuesday/Wednesday.
The first of the storms moving through the region tonight into tomorrow is a clipper-like system. This storm will drop generally light snow across east central Ohio into northern Pennsylvania, central and northern New Jersey, the New York City metro area, and southern New England. While a broad area of 1-3″ of snow is likely here, there will be some 3-6″ areas in the higher terrain of Pennsylvania, northwestern New Jersey, southern Connecticut, Rhode Island, and southeastern Massachusetts. Because of the likelihood of accumulating snowfall, the National Weather Service has issued Winter Weather Advisories, Winter Storm Watches, and Winter Storm Warnings for this area. Once the snow comes to a conclusion later on Friday from west to east, much colder air will filter into the northeast.
The second storm system will dive deeper than the first, bringing a round of snow to potions of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia on Sunday. While flurries from this system may fly as far north as Washington, DC, most snow associated with this second system will remain well south of the big cities of the northeast. Travel will become hazardous, especially over portions of North Carolina, on Sunday as significant snow falls there.
The second storm and the general atmospheric set-up across the country is expected to set the stage for a very significant winter storm on Tuesday. This storm could bring the heaviest snowfall of the winter season to the heavily populated I-95 corridor from Washington, DC to Boston, MA; the heaviest snow from that system could fall between Philadelphia and Providence, with New Jersey and the New York City the potential “ground zero” for this third winter storm. That storm alone may produce 6″+ snow for many of those areas then.
By the time the Friday-Wednesday period is over, a large part of the Northeast and Mid Atlantic will be under a blanket of snow, with many areas under a substantial blanket of at least a half-foot of snow. While February ended on a very mild spring-like note, it appears the next seven days of March will be especially wintry. And while heavy snow is expected over a broad area, we do expect a dramatic warm-up later this month, with temperatures well above normal.