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After wreaking havoc in the south, a massive ice and snow storm will move northward into the Mid-Atlantic states starting Wednesday night.
Snowfall will hit Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City in the evening, before spreading north to New England Thursday morning, The Weather Channel reported.
The Weather Channel estimated that 5 to 12 inches of snow is expected to hit parts of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York City and New England. Areas with higher elevation could get up to 18 inches of snow. Major cities Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City will also experience significant snowfall, which may mix with or change to sleet or rain, according to the channel.
Due to the storm, federal government offices in Washington, D.C., local D.C. government offices, as well as multiple public schools and colleges will be closed Thursday. However, schools in New York City will remain open.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency due to the "severe winter weather" that was expected to arrive Wednesday night. Christie also announced that state offices will be closed Thursday for all non-essential employees.
“This winter storm is expected to arrive tonight and last through early Friday morning, and the heavy snow will create hazardous travel conditions across the state,” Christie said in a statement Wednesday. “I’ve authorized state officials to continue all necessary actions, and my administration will monitor conditions throughout the remainder of the storm. I encourage all New Jerseyans to drive carefully and remain off the roads if possible so that our first responders and public safety officials can safely respond to any emergency situations.”
The southern United States is still coping with the effects of the storm. U.S. President Barack Obama declared South Carolina a federal disaster area, with nearly 230,000 customers in the state reportedly without power.
A college basketball game scheduled for Wednesday night between Duke University and the University of North Carolina was postponed due to the weather.
The ice storm underway in the South is going to be one of the most damaging storms of its kind in decades, if current projections pan out. The storm, which is gathering strength along the Gulf Coast, is pushing warm, moist air up and over an entrenched cold dome of high pressure that is keeping temperatures below freezing at the surface from Maine to Alabama.
Ice more than an inch thick is expected to coat much of central and eastern Georgia into central South Carolina. This may not sound like much, but considering that tree branches will break at just a quarter to a half-inch of ice accumulation, entire trees and power poles are likely to come crashing down in the hardest-hit areas.
Freezing rain results when a layer of warm air aloft and cold air at the surface causes rain to fall and freeze upon contact with the ground. Today, a strong area of high pressure across New England has been funneling cold air all the way down the East Coast and into Georgia, in a phenomenon that weather forecasters call “cold air damming.” The cold air damming was so strong this morning that the 32 degree Fahrenheit line was advancing southwest across Georgia, as the cold, dense air oozed its way down the eastern seaboard.
In an ominous sign, meteorologists at the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Atlanta have run out of adjectives to describe this event, writing in an early morning forecast discussion:
“I do not recall when the last time was that we used these types of aircraft observations for an East Coast storm, but we have in past for potential high impact events,” Vaccaro said in an email message.
Previously, the NWS has gone to great lengths in order to improve the accuracy of computer models in advance of a highly selective number of major storm. In 2012, for example, it ordered extra weather balloon launches at 120 weather offices across the entire U.S. in order to provide a data boost that could improve forecast accuracy for Hurricane Sandy.
After the flight and the computer model data that came in early on Wednesday, the NWS forecast office in Atlanta increased its forecast ice totals from about an inch to more than an inch.
Forecasts call for an inch or more of ice accumulation in an arc from southeast of Atlanta to Columbia, S.C., and on up to Raleigh, N.C. Such a large accumulation of ice is almost certain to cause extensive damage to trees and power lines because of the weight of the ice.
Based on an experimental index of ice storm severity, known as the Sperry-Piltz Ice Accumulation Index, it will likely rank at a level 4 out of 5 in parts of South Carolina, meaning that the state could see “prolonged and widespread utility interruptions” that last at least five to 10 days.
The ice is not the only threat from this storm. Heavy snow will also fall to the north of the zone of freezing rain, where the cold air layer is deeper.
The storm is projected to move northeastward along the East Coast, blasting Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston with several inches of snow followed by a sloppy mess of rain and sleet (which is quite possibly the worst type of precipitation because it painfully hits you in the face). To the west of the big cities, across the Appalachians, more than a foot of snow may fall.
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After wreaking havoc in the south, a massive ice and snow storm will move northward into the Mid-Atlantic states starting Wednesday night.
Snowfall will hit Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City in the evening, before spreading north to New England Thursday morning, The Weather Channel reported.
"A strengthening area of low pressure will move up the East Coast on Thursday bringing with it significant winter weather from the Southeast to New England," according to the National Weather Service. Ice-storm and winter-storm warnings are in effect for several states, which will experience dangerous road conditions, the service said.Storm slowly moving north along the East Coast. Latest forecasts at National Weather service pic.twitter
The Weather Channel estimated that 5 to 12 inches of snow is expected to hit parts of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York City and New England. Areas with higher elevation could get up to 18 inches of snow. Major cities Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City will also experience significant snowfall, which may mix with or change to sleet or rain, according to the channel.
Due to the storm, federal government offices in Washington, D.C., local D.C. government offices, as well as multiple public schools and colleges will be closed Thursday. However, schools in New York City will remain open.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency due to the "severe winter weather" that was expected to arrive Wednesday night. Christie also announced that state offices will be closed Thursday for all non-essential employees.
“This winter storm is expected to arrive tonight and last through early Friday morning, and the heavy snow will create hazardous travel conditions across the state,” Christie said in a statement Wednesday. “I’ve authorized state officials to continue all necessary actions, and my administration will monitor conditions throughout the remainder of the storm. I encourage all New Jerseyans to drive carefully and remain off the roads if possible so that our first responders and public safety officials can safely respond to any emergency situations.”
The southern United States is still coping with the effects of the storm. U.S. President Barack Obama declared South Carolina a federal disaster area, with nearly 230,000 customers in the state reportedly without power.
A college basketball game scheduled for Wednesday night between Duke University and the University of North Carolina was postponed due to the weather.
The ice storm underway in the South is going to be one of the most damaging storms of its kind in decades, if current projections pan out. The storm, which is gathering strength along the Gulf Coast, is pushing warm, moist air up and over an entrenched cold dome of high pressure that is keeping temperatures below freezing at the surface from Maine to Alabama.
Ice more than an inch thick is expected to coat much of central and eastern Georgia into central South Carolina. This may not sound like much, but considering that tree branches will break at just a quarter to a half-inch of ice accumulation, entire trees and power poles are likely to come crashing down in the hardest-hit areas.
Freezing rain results when a layer of warm air aloft and cold air at the surface causes rain to fall and freeze upon contact with the ground. Today, a strong area of high pressure across New England has been funneling cold air all the way down the East Coast and into Georgia, in a phenomenon that weather forecasters call “cold air damming.” The cold air damming was so strong this morning that the 32 degree Fahrenheit line was advancing southwest across Georgia, as the cold, dense air oozed its way down the eastern seaboard.
In an ominous sign, meteorologists at the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Atlanta have run out of adjectives to describe this event, writing in an early morning forecast discussion:
“This is an event of historical proportions!! Catastrophic...Crippling… Paralyzing… Choose your adjective. This is a very very big deal especially from metro Atlanta east along the I-20 corridor… generally anywhere south of I-85 and north of I-16 where the most significant ice totals are forecast. Stay safe out there!”In order to improve the reliability of the computer models that its forecasters use to predict the weather, the NWS tasked the famed U.S. Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters to fly a reconnaissance mission above the Gulf of Mexico last night. The aircraft dropped instrument packages known as dropsondes, which sent back data on air temperature, pressure, and winds, among other information. This data was then fed into an overnight run of one of the main computer models, known as the North American Model (or NAM for short).
“The U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunter made five different drops in the Gulf of Mexico last evening,” NWS spokesman Chris Vaccaro told Mashable. “The purpose was to collect additional observations over the Gulf to better assist with [the] track and intensity [forecast] of the winter storm.”The move also demonstrates the lack of consensus among the main computer models going into Wednesday morning, as the event was getting underway.
“I do not recall when the last time was that we used these types of aircraft observations for an East Coast storm, but we have in past for potential high impact events,” Vaccaro said in an email message.
Previously, the NWS has gone to great lengths in order to improve the accuracy of computer models in advance of a highly selective number of major storm. In 2012, for example, it ordered extra weather balloon launches at 120 weather offices across the entire U.S. in order to provide a data boost that could improve forecast accuracy for Hurricane Sandy.
After the flight and the computer model data that came in early on Wednesday, the NWS forecast office in Atlanta increased its forecast ice totals from about an inch to more than an inch.
Forecasts call for an inch or more of ice accumulation in an arc from southeast of Atlanta to Columbia, S.C., and on up to Raleigh, N.C. Such a large accumulation of ice is almost certain to cause extensive damage to trees and power lines because of the weight of the ice.
Based on an experimental index of ice storm severity, known as the Sperry-Piltz Ice Accumulation Index, it will likely rank at a level 4 out of 5 in parts of South Carolina, meaning that the state could see “prolonged and widespread utility interruptions” that last at least five to 10 days.
Already, the freezing rain has resulted in at least 200,000 people losing power across the South and Southeast, a number that is expected to climb rapidly throughout the day on Wednesday and into Wednesday night. A less severe and widespread ice storm in the Southeast in 2000 caused more than 500,000 to lose power in Georgia alone.In addition, the tree damage from this event could be so significant that it is visible for many years, much as a 1998 ice storm caused widespread tree damage and blackouts across northern New England and Quebec. The weight of the ice causes tree limbs to snap off, and can even cause entire trees to topple.
The ice is not the only threat from this storm. Heavy snow will also fall to the north of the zone of freezing rain, where the cold air layer is deeper.
The storm is projected to move northeastward along the East Coast, blasting Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston with several inches of snow followed by a sloppy mess of rain and sleet (which is quite possibly the worst type of precipitation because it painfully hits you in the face). To the west of the big cities, across the Appalachians, more than a foot of snow may fall.
Data indicates that there is the potential for two rare phenomena - thundersnow and thunder freezing rain, as vigorous atmospheric lift leads to the formation of thunderstorms on top of cold low-level air masses.If the track of the storm changes by as little as 30 miles, the zone of heaviest snow will shift. This could make the difference between a foot of snow in Washington and just six inches, which is the current forecast.
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