Speaking through a NC lens mostly:
I think at this point I feel pretty confident in verifying some sort of winter storm across the region this weekend but man are the red flags apparent. AI models have been outperforming the globals and to no surprise (or with our luck), of course they’re north with the coldest air and snow as the warm nose rages during the event.
I’m not sold on that being the final solution, but if we get into tonight/tomorrow morning and it’s looking the same, we might be screwed. The AI models have been very locked in from day 4/5 on this winter. They have struggled a bit with a warm bias but generally, they nail the footprint in the medium-short range.
I still think at worst, this is a sleet fest for most of the state.
Last thought: for someone this will be an ice storm for the ages. Idc if the HP is over upstate NY, Ottawa, Iowa, whatever. It’s going to be somewhere in a favorable position and it’s going to be strong. This favors an abnormally large area of mixed precip and stupidly low temps being fed by a steady pump of cold, dry air. Remember, freezing rain is self limited if the cad is in-situ, but not when it’s an anchored HP to the north. Latent heat release can’t compete with that much caa. We’re talking nightmare type of stuff. Sometimes it helps if the precip is heavy, but in the mid 20s, that won’t matter either.