Stage is Set for Heavy Snow on Wednesday for NYC, DC, MD, VA and Philadelphia

Models are now coming into agreement for a significant storm on Tuesday night and Wednesday. The snow will be heavy especially in Washington, DC, Baltimore and southern NJ as well as MD and DE - areas that were just hit on Saturday with 20 to 30 inches of snow. Very strong upper level energy will phase in with a weak shortwave trough over the southern plains and then this energy will form a storm ("Miller B" type storm track) a storm off the Delmarva coast that will then rapidly deepen to a forecast 976 mb or 28.82 in. (NAM). Winds will gust to 50 to 60 mph causing whiteout conditons as well as blizzard conditions. The main aspect in terms of snowfall duration is that there is not a blocking pattern upstream over the western Atlantic. As a result, the storm will not last as long as the 1996 or 2003 epic storms that dumped very heavy snow in the NYC tri-state region. Right now, I predict 6 to 12 inches in most of the NYC/Long Island area with up to 18" over southern NJ and northern VA, DE, MD. Cold, dry weather will follow through the weekend.

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