A monster winter storm was sweeping across towards the eastern United States Sunday, brining sleet, freezing rain and the possibility of the heaviest snowfall in a decade in some areas.
New York City and environs will be mostly spared the onslaught that is barreling east from the Midwest and set to hit the Mid-Atlantic states Sunday night, including Washington DC. As many as 63 million people could be affected overall, the National Weather Service said.
“It’s tricky on northern edges,” senior meteorologist Tony Fracasso of the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center told the Daily News on Sunday, noting it would likely be on the “lighter side in and around the New York City area. But heading south especially through New Jersey it will go to light snow, heavier, etc. as you head south.”
Northern New Jersey could see 1 to 3 inches while central New Jersey could receive possibly 3 to 6 inches and the southernmost part of the state could be hit with as many as 6 to 9 inches, Accuweather senior meteorologist Dave Bombek told the Daily News.
“So it’s going to be a much bigger storm in the southern” part of the state, he said, while north of New York City “there’ll be nothing at all. It’ll be dry as a bone. It’ll never snow a flake.”
Farther south and west, conditions were making for dangerous travel, with officials in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois were urging people to stay off the roads. Numerous flights were canceled and road crews were scrambling to keep up with the level of precipitation in some spots. Virginia declared a state of emergency and Florida braced for record cold.
Kansas Highway Patrol via AP
A car is wedged between two trucks during icy weather Saturday in Salina, Kansas. (Kansas Highway Patrol via AP)
“The system is basically over Missouri and Arkansas right now and it’s going to spread this band of snow, sleet, freezing rain to the south,” Fracasso said, noting that a foot had fallen in places like Kentucky.
Nor’easters, he explained, generally travel up the East Coast but this storm started in the Midwest and is traveling east. The Washington D.C. area is in the path of the heaviest Mid-Atlantic snow and could see about 6 inches, he said, and then “it’s basically just going to go out to sea.”
The uniting factor for all areas, storm or no storm, was slated to be the cold.
“The one thing that is going to be a common ground for everybody is that it’s going to be a cold week,” Bombek said, predicting New York City would stay at or below freezing until at least Friday, with nighttime lows in the 20s. “While it’s cold for sure, and it’s colder than what historical averages are, this is nowhere near being record levels.”
AP Photo/Cara Anna
Snow falls in Lowville, NY, on Saturday night. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
The polar temps were also contributing to lake-effect snow that was dumping up to 5 feet on western New York State and Pennsylvania downwind of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, Accuweather meteorologists said. Erie, Penn., had seen 17 inches as of Sunday morning while Rome, N.Y., had received more than 21 inches. More was coming, though it was slated to taper off into Monday.
With News Wire Services
