What you should know
- A severe weather system is expected to hit New York City with severe thunderstorms, high winds and flooding as early as Friday night.
- The storm system will come in from the southwest and bring a mix of winter precipitation to the area beginning after 5 a.m. Saturday.
- Precipitation is expected to start as rain in the city and coastal areas and snow in inland areas where temperatures will be much cooler.
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A severe weather system is expected to hit New York City with severe thunderstorms, high winds and flooding as early as Friday night.
A cold front from the north will collide with a warm front in the southern United States and the storm will begin to develop in the southeast near southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and Georgia on Friday.
The system could develop into a bombogenesis or bomb cyclone, a common term used by meteorologists to describe storms in the North Atlantic that undergo a rapid strengthening process known officially as bombogenesis, with a drop in atmospheric pressure of at least 24 millibars in a 24-hour period. The lower the pressure, the stronger a storm becomes.
The tri-state area is enjoying the calm before the storm with sunshine and 50-degree temperatures Thursday. But that will all change Friday night as the clouds will begin to thicken as temperatures drop into the 30s and 40s and a storm system approaches from the southwest bringing a mix of winter precipitation to the area beginning after 5 a.m. on Saturday.
Precipitation is expected to start as rain in the city and coastal areas and snow in inland areas where temperatures will be much cooler.
There is a winter storm watch for northern counties where snowfall of 6 inches or more is expected, with a winter weather watch and a winter storm watch for northwestern New Jersey and parts of the lower Hudson Valley, closer to the metropolitan area where snow and ice could cause hazardous driving conditions with accumulations of up to 6 inches possible and low visibility as snow falls.
Aside from snow, this storm will also bring a round of heavy rain, including the threat of some isolated severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and dangerous lightning in the morning hours.
The transition from rain to snow should occur at noon and the snow ends by dinner time. Strong wind gusts will continue through Saturday night with single digit wind chills expected Sunday morning and 20 degree winds Sunday afternoon. Fortunately, this arctic air won’t stick around for long, as temperatures are expected to climb back into the 60s during the last week of winter.
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