Today's Snowstorm: As Forecast, Huge Area Of East Coast Getting A Big Dump

It still looks like this will be
a common scene in the Eastern U.S. today.  

The forecast hasn't changed much from last night regarding the big snowstorm affecting the East Coast today.

There's a huge area under a winter storm warning from western Virginia all the way up through Maine.

Yeah, I'm adding unneeded stress to your holiday, since traveling is a big deal today, but what can I do?

As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, precipitation covered an enormous area from Florida to southern New England. From the Middle Atlantic States to Connecticut, the snowstorm had already started by dawn, and was spreading northward.

It'll cover most of the Northeast, including pretty much all of New England by this afternoon.

If you are on the East Coast, I'd pretty much forget about travel today, especially along and to the west of Interstate 95. The roads are going to be icy, and slick, visibility poor. Airlines, I'm sure, will have huge delays.

An ominous sign is that the airlines are waiving change fees on flights today. That's a sure sign they expect trouble from the weather.

As the precipitation arrives in the Mid-Atlantic states and southern New England, it might start as rain. Don't be fooled, it will quickly change to a wet, messy snow.

I still think the deepest accumulations from this storm will go through the Hudson Valley of New York, especially near and south of Albany, the western half to two thirds of Massachusetts, northwestern Connecticut, and the southern parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

There, a good 10 to 18 inches of snow could accumulate today and tonight.

This is a relatively brief, but very intense storm, so that 10 to 18 inches will come down mostly within 12 hours or so. That means very poor visibility on the roads, and highway crews will have trouble keeping pace with the accumulations.

There's even a slight chance of thundersnow in southern New England today or this evening. Because the snow will be heavy and wet, power failures from snapping trees and lines could be a problem in some spots.

Geez, let's really complicate Thanksgiving. No travel, no power for cooking. What else could go wrong? I don't want to know.

The predicted zone of heaviest snow has been pushed back to the northwest a little bit, so more of Vermont and eastern New York are going to be in the winter storm warning or winter weather advisory zone for 4 to 8 inches of snow than I originally thought.

Extreme southeastern New England will miss the snow, because the storm will move close enough to the coast to throw warm-ish air to that region. Expect a lot of rain and wind on Cape Cod and the Islands, though.

The storm will be departing on Thanksgiving, so road conditions are expected to improve during Turkey Day. With Maine and New Hampshire seeing the storm last, those areas will be the last to see the snow taper off and the roads improve Thursday.