Major Winter Storm for Mid-Atlantic States, NYC and LI for Wednesday

Winter Storm Watches have been posted for western, central and southern NJ, eastern PA, northern VA, northern MD and DE for Tuesday night and Wednesday. There is the potential for more than 5 inches of snow and sleet in these areas. The snow will begin Tuesday afternoon and evening and continue through most of Wednesday. As I indicated in my earlier posts, a very strong upper-level disturbance will form a very strong storm off the Delmarva Peninsula early Wednesday. The NYC tri-state region, Washington DC and southern CT will be on the northwest side of this storm which is normally the location where the heaviest snow falls. However, the latest runs (7 AM Monday, Feb. 8, 2010) indicate that the strongest dynamics will once again be to the south of NYC with the strongest vertical velocity, upper divergence, positive vorticity advection remaining to the south across DE and MD.

So right now it appears the most precipitation will fall over southern NJ and in the areas most hardest hit by last Saturday's storm. However, near the coast there could be some mixing in with sleet or rain that could lower accumulations. The storm appears to me able to produce about 18 hours of snow across the tri-state NYC area and 6 to 12 inches seems likely at this point with heavier amounts to the south. I will have several more updates on this storm.

George Wright is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist and President of Wright Weather Consulting, Inc. George is also a meteorologist with News 12.