East Coast Storm Looking A Little Snowier Than Earlier Forecasts

Expect lots of activity on sledding hills across
the Northeast this weekend. The storm is going
to be a bit snowier than forecast. 

That sloppy East Coast storm moving in tonight and continuing Saturday looks like it will prove a little snowier in some areas than first thought.

The air associated with the storm is a touch colder, a little bit more to the north and west  and a bit wetter than earlier forecasts, so snowfall might be a little heavy in some areas.

One of those spots is the extreme northeastern tip of West Virginia and much of central Pennsylvania, where five to eight inches of wet snow is expected tonight and tomorrow.

This area of heavier snow, now under a winter storm warning,  is roughly between Harrisburg and State College, Pa.

The winter storm watch in parts of southern New England have been upgraded to a warning, as expected.

That New England winter storm warning encompasses a larger than the original watch, with the warning stretching through the northwestern two thirds of Connecticut. The winter storm warning also covers  most of central and eastern Massachusetts, except southeast of a line from roughly Boston to Providence, Rhode Island.

The winter storm warning extends all the way along the coast of Maine.

Expect four to eight inches of wet snow, with a little freezing rain and rain thrown in during much of Saturday for southern New England.

In the southeastern corner of New England, snow will become mixed with, or change to rain tomorrow.

Winter weather advisories have been extended to the north and west, covering western Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire all the way to the Vermont border.

In fact, extreme southeastern Vermont, around Brattleboro, is covered under the winter weather advisory. Earlier, that section of Vermont had been expected to receive very little snow.

Three to six inches of snow are likely in the advisory area.

Even in the rest of central and eastern Vermont, where no snow had been expected from this storm, there now might be dusting. No big deal, of course, but still.

Meanwhile down on the Cape, coastal flood advisories are up as this storm will kick up a storm surge enough to cause at least minor flooding, and possibly moderate flooding during Saturday's early afternoon high tide.

Winds will stir up waves that will erode the shoreline too.

We're still looking at the storm to zip on away Saturday night. An Arctic cold front will give northern New England  few snow showers Saturday night, then it looks like that long, long spell of cold, often below zero weather will begin Sunday.

All in all, the storm tomorrow is going to be a little more impressive than I first thought. I knew it would be a "bomb" and strengthen big time as it passes New England, but now it's going to be just slightly closer to the coast, meaning more effects.

This won't be a record breaker, but sections of the Northeast that haven't had much snow this winter will finally get a halfway decent dump.