First Snowstorm Arrives!

Beautiful First Snow photo by Santi-Jose on Flickr

You know what's an infallible indicator of a coming storm? Time out errors on every freakin' weather web site. People, get off the Internet so we can get our post written. The impending storm would be unremarkable were it not the first storm of the season and happening as lots of people begin their Festivus journeys. The light snow that has begun to fall looks like it will turn into an ugly, sloppy mess before the day is over and not the pretty flakes seen earlier in the week.

The storm bringing the snow is centered over the Tri-state area. The tri-states being Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. The low is expected to move eastward along a warm front that stretches south of the city. That path puts us near the boundary between rain and snow. The next few hours should see snow increasing in intensity and mixing with sleet. There won't be much warming near the ground but the northward creep of warm air above the front means that rain will mix with the snow and sleet this afternoon. Total accumulation will be 3-5 inches in the city. Nearly double that amount is expected in northern New Jersey, the lower Hudson Valley and New England.

As it cools off tonight the precipitation will change over to all snow. There may be a few leftover snow showers tomorrow, but it is mainly going to be cold and windy. Saturday's high will be around 30. Another storm is expected on Sunday. It may bring another inch or so of snow in the morning but it is likely to be all rain by afternoon. We should catch a break at the start of next week but yet another system may hit the city on Wednesday.