Extreme weather in North East US

Nor'easter 'bomb' could hit New York with heavy snow, strong winds

Weather patterns suggest that a springtime snowstorm could develop over the Southeastern states and strike the Northeast with ferocious winds, low temperatures and burdensome snow — but if we're lucky, it could drift out into the Atlantic and forgo smacking New York with more aggravation.

NY Daily News,

21 March, 2014

Spring may have sprung, but winter ain’t done.

The city could get hit with another snowstorm Tuesday night and temperatures will hover in the 30s for the next week.

Forecasters are keeping an eye on the southeastern states, which might give birth to a baby storm that could drift out over the Atlantic Ocean and roar up the coast, slamming the Northeast early next week as a full-grown snow bomb.

“It’s too far in the future for us to have a lot of confidence in the ‘bomb’ scenario,” said Tim Morrin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

A storm reaching bomb level — technically known as a “explosive cyclogenesis” — would include hurricane force winds, coastal flooding, beach erosion and several feet of snow.

For the past few days, weather patterns have signaled that the storm could develop Tuesday.

“The East Coast cyclone has the potential to produce late season heavy snowfall over a wide swath of real estate from Virginia to New England,” NWS forecasters in Maryland said earlier Friday. “That is a generality at this point. Much remains in terms of refining the forecast state-by-state.”

Too many ingredients still have to be added to the mix for forecasters to say whether a major storm will develop, Morrin said.

“We can’t put a lot of credence or confidence in forecasting a major storm at this point,” Morrin said.

If a storm hits the five boroughs, it will most likely be snow rather than rain.

If it does form, then it’s a question of its size and route, Morrin said.

“The worst case would be a storm track that is close enough to the coast that New York metro area would be the heaviest,” Morrin said.

If a storm hits the five boroughs, it will most likely be snow rather than rain — with temps not expected to reach 40.

“That's about 13 degrees below normal,” Morrin said.

New York City has already had more than 56 inches of snow this winter, making it the seventh-snowiest on record.

But the possible storm could wind up breaking far enough out into the Atlantic — hundreds of miles — that New Yorkers just experience a cold, breezy day.

By Sunday, forecasters will have a better sense of the size, direction, and eventual location of any storm. “That’s why we’ve put in a 40% chance of some snow for Tuesday night, it’s still less than half-and-half that it will happen,” Morrin said.

Storm or no storm, winter’s icy fingers will not release their frigid grip on the Northeast for at least the next seven to 10 days.

“Temperatures will hover in the 30s, well below expected norms in the low 50s for the end of March,” Morrin said.