The snow storm which swept through yesterday brought upwards of 8 inches to parts of the Lower Midwest and Ohio Valley while parts of New England saw nearly 20 inches. The high totals are all thanks to the convergence of arctic air and warm, moisture rich Gulf air and once the low reached the New England coast, Atlantic air also got involved. I guess this was a regular winter storm with 1 inch for Philadelphia, 5 inches generally across the New York City area and 8 inches up in Boston.

Arctic air followed in the system’s wake with a high of only 16 in Chicago which makes it the coldest day yet. Despite it snowing, temperatures warmed into the mid to upper 30s, even low 40s around NYC, upper 30s in Boston while it was warm enough for precip to fall mostly as rain in Philly, all rain down in DC with a high around 50, explaining to low or no snow totals here. Arctic air now sweeping in this morning will create a significant ICE RISK throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, even in Boston where 8 inches of snow fell, the temperature was warm enough for wet roadways and now that temps are falling through the 20s, wet will rapidly turn to black ice.

Here’s the surface chart this morning which shows arctic high pressure sliding in on ther backside of the system which will make for a cold or frigid day throughout the region.

Top Northeast Snow Totals (Inches)

Woodford, VT 18

Landgrove, VT 17

York Co, ME 16.5

Albany Co, NY 14

Lunenberg, MA 10.1

Canton, CT 8

Top total in the Midwest appears to be 8 inches in Dardenne Prairie, MO.

53% Of US Snow Covered

99.1% Of Northeast Is Snow Covered

The recent snowstorm which dropped up to 18 inches on parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine has left the entire Northeast snow covered with the exceptions of Long Island’s south shore.

Cold Day Follows Snowstorm

Following the Saturday snow event across the Midwest, yesterday was darn cold with fresh arctic air crossing the newly laid snow. It was the coldest of the season so far in Chicago where it only maxed out at 16 degrees but notice it was warmer further east.

Yesterday’s highs.

While it hit the upper 30s and low 40s in the Northeast yesterday as the system rolled through, today will be considerably colder with highs only in the mid-20s from Philly up to Boston after a sharp drop in temperature overnight as the arctic air rushes in on the backside.

Check out these forecast highs across the Northeast today according to TWC.

Very cold night ahead, particularly over the deeper snow fields of New England. It’s a little less cold around the Philadelphia/New York area due to cloud and snow pushing in from the Ohio Valley but it will be clear with light winds further north.

Another Snow System?

While it clears out across the Northeast, a new, smaller system is already sweeping across Illinois and Indiana as of this writing and that’s the next snow event.

Check out the current radar.

Here comes that next system which btw won’t have Gulf moisture to feed off of, so snow totals across the Lower Midwest and eventually the Northeast tomorrow, should be less. However, once that low reaches the New England coast, expect snow totals to rise sharply bring the 1-2 inches across Ill, Ind, Ohio, Penn, NJ, NY to perhaps 4-8 up into southern New England.

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36 hrs

42 hrs

ECMWF snow projections.

42 hrs

Following a cold and snowy first half to the week, we see some decent warming late week through next weekend as the trough redevelops over the NP which in turn pumps the eastern ridge.

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Tags: arctic air, cold blast, snow, snowstorm