Thursday, December 4, 2014

Thursday, December 4, 2014 - Evening Weather Discussion

A major Nor’easter is likely to develop near the Middle Atlantic Coast for Tuesday and Wednesday…

First though, we will have increasing cloudiness tomorrow with light rain, light sleet, or light snow developing in the evening and quickly changing to light rain and continuing overnight.  The highs tomorrow will be in the upper 30’s to low 40’s.

Saturday we will have showers in the morning and rain, heavy at times in the late afternoon and at night.  Highs on Saturday will be in the mid 40’s.

Sunday the rain will end in the morning, and then it will clear out with highs in the upper 30’s.

The storm that produced the rain on Saturday and Saturday night will exit the East Coast of the United States and head out to sea, reaching Bermuda.  At the same time a strong upper level low pressure area will be dropping down from Central Canada and into the Great Plains, then the Great Lakes.  This strong upper level low pressure area, combined with strong blocking over the Central and Northern Atlantic will cause the low that passed through on Saturday and will be sitting over Bermuda to make a left hand turn and start heading back toward us.  This low will be strengthening as the upper level low pressure area over the Great Lakes starts to transfer its energy to the low moving back toward us from Bermuda.  This will cause clouds to increase again on Monday and snow to develop on Monday evening.   The high on Monday will be in the low to mid 30’s.

As the storm continues to gain strength from the transfer of energy from the strong upper level low over the Great Lakes, I believe it will finally reach a point about 50 miles off the New Jersey Coast by Tuesday morning.  This will cause snow to fall heavy at times on Monday night and Tuesday.  The storm will then move northeast, heading toward Cape Cod and the Gulf of Maine by Tuesday night, strengthening as it does so and keeping us under snow, heavy at times until Tuesday evening when it should finally start to wind down here, ending at night on Tuesday. 

If this all works out as I outlined above I think there would be a chance for snowfall accumulations in excess of one foot in Northern New Jersey and the possibility of more than that with the outside chance of this storm approaching blizzard status. 

Now, this is all dependent upon things working out as I outlined above.  There are many things that could change this forecast.  One thing that could happen is that the storm could take a track further out to sea, causing much lower snowfall totals, or even the chance of sunny skies if it is far enough out to sea.  Another possibility is that the storm could track further west or even track inland which would allow warm air to move in off the ocean and change us to ice or rain.  These things are always possibilities with storms like this.  I said to many people today that these types of storms have the potential to produce 2-3 feet of snow in one place and nothing at all just 50 miles away.  Often there is a very fine line between rain and snow and snow and sunny skies.  After all, it is the instability in the atmosphere that produces such incredible storms in the first place.

I remember a few years back when Northeastern New Jersey got hit by a blizzard with 3 feet of snow while far Northwest New Jersey got only a few inches and Northeastern Pennsylvania got nothing at all.  And only two days before the storm hit it looked like no one would get anything at all, and there was a forecast for sunny skies by the National Weather Service and all the local news outlets.  Then again, I was right here mentioning the possibility of a monster Nor’easter with blizzard potential when they were talking about sunny skies two days away.  Yeah, that one happened and Bergen County got 3 feet of snow, while I in Northwest New Jersey got 3 inches and my neighbors in Monroe County, Pennsylvania just across the river got nothing at all.  That is the type of storm this one may turn out being.  Yeah, it could completely miss us and we end up with sunny skies (I feel this is highly unlikely).  We could get sideswiped by the storm and get only a dusting or a few inches (a very real possibility).  The storm could go inland and we get snow changing to rain (a real possibility but I don’t think it will happen).  Or we could get a very intense Nor’easter that will come close to attaining blizzard classification with the possibility of thunder snow and more than a foot of snow, possibly well in excess of a foot of snow in some places ( I feel this is a possibility as well).  In fact, I believe there will be an area somewhere between Virginia and Maine that will receive 2-3 FEET of snow.  Of course maybe Mother Nature will just laugh at us and it will be sunny (always a possibility with weather).  Remember, weather is based in chaos theory and we may be seeing some chaos in the Northeastern United States early next week, maybe.

Anyway, after this potential storm passes we should get some well-deserved nice weather for Thursday through Sunday with highs in the upper 30’s next Thursday, around 40 next Friday and the low 40’s next Saturday and the mid 40’s next Sunday.

Then our next chance for rain or snow will be next Monday evening through Wednesday with highs in the mid to upper 30’s.

Please join me in the morning to see what Mother Nature decides for us...

If you want to escape the cold and snow, my dad owns a real estate company in Florida. Click here to view his company website.  

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