NEW YORK (WABC) — A major snowstorm is enveloping the Tri-State area, with the worst expected to strike between Friday evening and early Saturday, and parts of the area on track to receive around a foot of snow if the heaviest bands deliver on their potential.
The storm is poised to become the most significant snowstorm to hit New York City in almost four years.
The snow will be heavy at times and will greatly reduce visibility, making travel treacherous across the entire region, which is covered in a Winter Storm Warning from the National Weather Service.
The storm is powerful but fast-moving and front-loaded, and could deliver 1 to as much as 2 to even 2 1/2 inches an hour of snow at its peak intensity. This kind of intensity — an inch or more an hour — will challenge snow plows working to clear roads.
The worst will begin around 7 p.m. Friday and continue until about 1 a.m., but moderate snow will still fall into the morning hours on Saturday. Central Park, for instance, could see a whopping 2 inches an hour of snow by 10 p.m., with similar intensities across parts of the area. Parts of the Hudson Valley have already seen heavy snow by early evening.
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The final totals will be a widespread 4 to 8 inches in New York City and across much of the area. However, 8 to 12 inches of snow is possible in the heaviest bands, largely north and east of New York City.
Those heavy bands will encroach the Hudson Valley, extreme northern New Jersey and even parts of Long Island. Even parts of the northern Bronx could get into those heavy bands.
The key question will ultimately be where those heavy bands set up, so there could be big differentials in accumulations within small geographic expanses.
Temperatures will remains cold, ensuring the precipitation stays as snow for much of the region, but sleet is expected to mix in to our south, keeping amounts in the 2-to-4-inch range in central and southern New Jersey, where warmer air aloft will keep totals down.
The storm is an Alberta Clipper which has been infused with energy from the Pacific storms delivering an atmospheric river of rain to the West Coast. As this system crashes into the cold air in our area, it will squeeze out a lot of snow in a hurry. Meteorologist Jeff Smith describes the system as an “Alberta Clipper on steroids.”
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