Northeast Blizzard Totally Impressive Even Before It Formed

In a visible satellite photo of the developing storm taken this
afternoon, you can see the thin enhanced line of
intense snow squall sfrom western New York, northwestern
Pennsylvania, central Ohio then curving back into central Indiana. 

Saturday evening, right on schedule, the big nor'easter that's expected to bring that huge blizzard to eastern New England was definitely showing signs of forming.

Barometric pressure was falling fast off the Mid-Atlantic coast, an area of precipitation was blossoming in and around Maryland, and snow, the result of warm-ish air overriding cold air, was breaking out in southeastern New England.

What I was really impressed by was the disturbance that dropped down from the North Pole, across Ontario, western New York and was heading eastward across Pennsylvania as of 6 p.m. Saturday.

I knew this disturbance would be extremely energetic. (Note that I kept saying so in forecasts leading up to this.)

But boy, I've never seen anything quite like this. It's a weird storm, to be sure.

During the late morning, a snow squall line formed over Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. It strengthened and swept east, and was in central New York and Pennyslvania this evening. During the night, it will probably get absorbed into the developing storm, but wow, what a squall line!

On radar and in satellite images, the squall line looked somewhat like you'd see in a springtime severe weather outbreak.

In fact, the snow squall line contained thunder and lightning, strong winds, and near zero visibility in heavy snow.

Check out the time lapse video from Hollisdaysburg,  Pennsylvania at the bottom of this post. It gets really, really dark, and there's some ragged, ominous clouds just before it hits, like a bad thunderstorm is coming.

These squalls dropped visibility on highways and turned them into skating rinks instantaneously. The Columbia (Ohio) Dispatch reports several big pileups, at least two deaths and multiple injuries today.

The main squall line has passed Ohio, but subsequent squalls are passing through the state, causing more havoc.

The Indianapolis Star reported several pileups in that state as well. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the northwest part of that state due to heavy snow squalls, high winds and low visibility.

The forecast for the blizzard on Sunday remains largely unchanged. It looks like the storm might go a bit more east than previous forecasts, so snowfall in eastern New England might be just a tiny bit less than earlier forecasts.

But it's going to be a formidable storm, and every bit as dangerous as the forecasts have been calling for.

Let's be careful out there.