.SHORT TERM /FRIDAY THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT/...
...Accumulating snow likely Friday night and Saturday...
Deep upper level PV anomaly dropping southeast from Central Canada,
along with some sheared out upper level jet energy from the Desert
Southwest may provide just enough moisture/forcing to activate the
tight mid level baroclinic zone in place to squeeze out a little bit
of light snow or flurries Friday morning. However, this activity
will have little if any impact for the local area.
The more substantial snow will arrive Friday night and continue
through the day Saturday. As both disturbances within the northern
and southern stream approach the area, they will eventually phasing
as they get closer to the eastern seaboard. This will allow for a
developing surface wave to rapidly intensify as it moves northward
from the mid Atlantic states Friday night into New England on
Saturday.
Associated precipitation should start off as light rain perhaps as
early as late Friday afternoon with temperatures still in the upper
30s and 40s. That will change quickly Friday evening as a sharp cold
front moves through. Much colder air will pour into the region
switching the rain over to snow very quickly. There continues to
remain uncertainty to how the overall system evolves and this will
play a large role in how fast the cold air arrives and changes the
precipitation over to snow, but it does seems likely at this
juncture that most of the area will change over to snow before
Saturday morning. Snow will then continue Saturday with increasing
snowfall rates, especially for areas where some lake enhancement
occurs. A high impact event for the area seems more and more likely
with the potential for significant snowfall amounts, so will
continue to highlight this storm in the HWO product.
On the back side of this system, lake effect snow within a
increasing northwest flow will bring additional snowfall amounts to
the southeast of the lakes and higher terrain Saturday night.
Winds will become quite gusty later Saturday and Saturday night and
could bring additional impacts along with the snow.