The Big Apple Snowdrift
A heavy winter storm is lashing New York City and is expected to dump nine inches of snow - never a pleasant event there.
NEW YORK (AP) — A winter storm blanketed much of the Northeast on Friday, delaying flights at the region's major airports and causing havoc during the morning commute.
"Already, this is the most significant storm of the season for New York City," said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Connolly.
The massive system, which had brought everything from freezing rain to sleet to snow in parts of Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois on Thursday, lumbered eastward and northward overnight.
The weather service predicted 6 to 9 inches for New York City, where snow began before dawn. Up to a foot was forecast in some suburban counties, and 10 inches in Connecticut.
Storm warnings extended northward across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. In many places, snow was changing over to rain, sometimes freezing rain.
Flights at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark International Airport were delayed more than five hours, and in Philadelphia the average arriving flight was 4½ hours late. Some airlines waived their fee for passengers rebooking tickets.
Driving was no more fun than flying. The speed limit along the New Jersey Turnpike was reduced to 35 mph, and jackknifed rigs shut down southbound lanes of Interstate 95 for a couple of hours in Greenwich, Connecticut.
And on an even more cheerful note, there is another storm queued up and ready to march across the nation.
As this storm exits the East, a new Pacific storm is poised to move into the West Coast by Saturday night. The West Regional News story reports that storm will slam the region with heavy rain, snow and strong winds that will cross the mountains into the Central Valley.
Strong winds gusting above 60 mph will lash the California coast north of Monterey Bay, while 3 to 4 inches of wind-whipped rain falls on northern California. Strong winds will help to create large ocean waves and swells along the Pacific coast.
The storm will slam the Sierra with heavy snow before the rain and snow move into Southern California and the Intermountain West Sunday.
West Coast Expert Meteorologist Paul Yeager states, "I expect that there will be 3 to 5 feet of new snow in elevations above 7,000 feet, with generally all snow from 5,500 feet and higher. As snow levels lower on Sunday, snow might fall as low as about 4,500 feet, which means that there might be some snow in the valleys of western Nevada as well."
By Monday, the storm will reorganize over the Plains. Expert Senior Meteorologist John Kocet reports the re-generated storm next week will mirror the characteristics of the storm currently slamming the East. Through midweek, the system will spark snow across the northern Plains and Midwest and severe storms across the South.
They are also predicting arctic cold sweeping in behind this next storm - as in really arctic cold, far below normal for this time of year. Keep the snowshovels handy, folks. Winter is still going strong.
Environment | Gaius Friday, 22 February , 2008
By Gary Gulrud, Friday, 22 February , 2008 @ 2:39 pm
I was going to dwell on the amusement the first story is creating in flyover America, however, the second story has slapped the smirk off my face. Now what does the Jetstream look like just now?
By NortonPete, Friday, 22 February , 2008 @ 2:54 pm
I’m 50 miles west of NYC in the NW hills of NJ and we have had 12" of snow which is actually nothing. The streets are all plowed and sanded. People are out zooming around in 4wds. It was a very nice powder snow easy to clear, like snow in Utah. A major snowstorm would be 24"+ and it would need to fall in a few hours, otherwise this isn’t much. Snowstorms in NYC are actually fun, because you can walk the streets without cars, and most businesses are open. It is only the next couple of days when it turns to brown slush that make it bad,
By Gaius, Friday, 22 February , 2008 @ 3:09 pm
Ugly indeed, Gary.
http://squall.sfsu.edu/gif/jetstream_init_00.gif
Snow in NYC does pretty much bring traffic to a standstill for a while, though, Pete. (If you got powder, it has to be pretty cold, too.)
By NortonPete, Friday, 22 February , 2008 @ 3:40 pm
Gaius, if you look at the weather map at accuweather it shows the cold front colliding with moist air basically over my county. On the ground, it was not that cold maybe 23-24F but I am guessing a thousand feet up it was very cold where the snow formed. Thankfully we could just sweep the snow.
That western system looks powerful and as you point out, the jetstream is pretty far south. Around here late season or spring storms are the worse. My wife was stuck on a bus for 16 hours one April when nearly 3 feet of snow fell in just a few hours.
By Steve Burri, Friday, 22 February , 2008 @ 7:12 pm
Eureka! Al Gore’s efforts have halted global warming and, as a positive side effect, children with active snow shovels are seldom obese.