Big Freakin' Weather Mess Ahead

It's about time. It took until mid-February but it finally looks like we are going to get a real winter storm. The forecast for tonight and tomorrow is positively nasty. Guess when Gothamist is flying out of town!

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory from this evening until tomorrow night. Snow showers should begin any moment now. The snow will become steady and mix with sleet overnight, accumulating 2-4 inches by morning. Temperatures will moderate tomorrow morning as a bit of warm gulf air reaches the city. We can expect a mix of snow, sleet and rain changing over to all rain in the afternoon. Another 1-3 inches of a snow/sleet mix is likely. The precipitation will be heavy at times. Winter Storm Warnings have been posted for counties north of the city, where 10-20 inches of snow are forecast.

The winds will pick up during the day tomorrow and start blowing out of the north. Wednesday evening the rain will turn back to light snow with some dangerous freezing rain possible. The winds will be howling out of the north at a good 25-30 miles an hour. As a result the temperature will drop to the mid-teens Thursday morning and the wind chill will stay at or below zero all day Thursday.

Radar map of encroaching winter storm from Intellicast.com.