Lot’s of talk about the major snowstorm coming to the Northeast later tomorrow into Friday but we don’t want to forget the first phase of this two part snow event which is currently affecting a large swath extending from Kansas all the way to Lower Michigan, even Pennsylvania. That snow band has already lay down a good few inches in Chicago and surrounding areas and more is to come tonight and tomorrow.

Here’s a look at the latest radar showing that snow band that’s streaming through Chicago and Detroit.

Here’s a close up of the Chicago area.

WATCH: US VIDEO FROM EARLIER!

That snow is associated with a low riding the arctic boundary that’s pushing across the Ohio Valley and it’s as that low pushes into Ohio itself, so winds turn northeasterly in Chicago and therefore lake moisture gets involved and so snow totals in the Windy City could end up topping 8-14 inches when all is said and done.

While that strip of snow advances east bringing flurries or even light snow to New York and Boston tonight and tomorrow, the main event remains to the south.

A developing low in the Southeast will be sweeping off the South Atlantic coast and will deepen as it tracks northeast but it’s as the low weakens and pushes out to sea, that things get interesting. The combining energy of the two lows are expected to deepen the main offshore low and as it does so, Atlantic moisture gets thrown inland from DC to Maine.

While moisture increases, so too does the wind as the low deepens offshore and while this takes place off New Jersey by this point late Thursday and early Friday, the arctic air pushes in and so you’ve got the combination of very cold air, gales and heavy snow that will make for a very difficult Thursday night/Friday morning to be out and about from Philadelphia to Boston. I expect 1-3 inches as far south as DC, 2-4 Baltimore, 3-6 Philadelphia and up into NYC and we could see strong gusts in excess of 50 mph, 60 mph over coastal Long Island. As for snow, up to 6-10 inches is expected. Even higher amounts are likely in Hartford, Providence and Boston where 8-14 inches is possible with blizzard conditions.

Here’s the latest AccuWeather snow chart.

As you can see, blizzard conditions are possible over coastal southern New England, perhaps extending to parts of Long Island.

As the system exits later Friday with skies clearing, so we see the core of cold move in.

Here’s the surface chart and thickness values for late Friday.

With thicknesses down 510 in NYC, 516 near Baltimore and with a freshly laid snowpack and NW flow, your looking at night lows around 0 in NYC, 2-5 in Philadelphia and possibly 7-10 as far south as DC if there is snow cover.

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Latest ECMWF Takes Boston, NYC, Philadelphia Below 0 Sat AM.

Once tonight and tomorrow’s snow exits Chicago, the coldest temps of the winter is on the way tomorrow night as the core of cold slides across Chicagoland’s fresh snow cover. We could see a low of between -6 and -10 Friday AM.

Here’s the temperature setup today over the Northeast. Core of cold remains in Canada.

As the snowstorm exits, so the cold rushes in.

Here’s the latest forecasted temps off the ECMWF Saturday morning.

Potentially The Coldest Air Mass Since 1994 On The Way For Early Next Week!

While it may be cold from Minneapolis to Chicago across to DC late this week but, that may be nothing compared to what’s coming next week.

Check out these temperatures off the ECMWF for next Monday. Minneapolis -25 to -30.

Unbelievably, -25 to -30 in Chicago (that would challenge the all-time record). Also -20s in Ohio.

Daytime highs will likely be just as incredible with cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago failing to get ABOVE -10 and staying below throughout the Ohio Valley.

These numbers will continue to fluctuate between now and next week but if this was to occur, we could be looking at several places breaking all-time record lows. Amazing!

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Tags: arctic air, cold blast, US Arctic Outbreak