Weekend storm to bring wide variety of weather, travel woes in northeastern US

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

While far from a blockbuster storm, a period of adverse weather conditions ranging from snow to ice to rain and gusty winds will affect the northeastern United States this weekend.

Just enough cold air will linger to produce snow and ice in some areas as a potent storm centered over the Midwest throws moisture toward the region this weekend.

The timing of the storm will be such that much of the region will be dry during the daylight hours on Saturday.

The bulk of the precipitation with the storm will affect the central Appalachians during Saturday night and the mid-Atlantic coast from Saturday night to Sunday morning.

The storm will affect New England mainly on Sunday.

Much of the central Appalachians will turn out dry on Sunday, while the mid-Atlantic coast dries out during Sunday afternoon.

While rain will be the primary form of precipitation for the storm in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and even New York City as mild air is forecast to surge in quickly, enough snow and wintry mix can occur to cause slippery conditions for a time in Boston.

People from northeastern New York state to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine will need to use their snow shovels and plows for this storm as they have done throughout the winter.

A general 2-4 inches of snow is forecast in this zone with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 8 inches over the highest elevations, including some of the ski resorts.

This NOAA GOES- East Satellite image shows parts of the eastern United States on March 8, 2019. (Image/NOAA Satellites)

A swath of wintry mix with snow at the onset, then sleet and freezing rain is in store from parts of central and southeastern New York state, northeastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey to southern New England.

In the southernmost part of this swath, snow will be very brief at the start of the storm, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brian Wimer.

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"We expect even the wintry mix portion of the storm to be brief as well from southeastern New York to along the southern coast of New England," Wimer said.

"Pockets of freezing rain, on the order of 0.10 to 0.25 of an inch, may accrue on cold surfaces from the Poconos to the Catskills and Berkshires from Saturday night to early Sunday," Wimer said.

Because of the time of day, when few people are on the roads, impacts related to icy roads may be minimal.

However, as winds pick up Saturday night to Sunday, the weight of the ice on the trees may cause some limbs to break and lead to power outages.

Winds will be strongest near the eastern Great Lakes, but some locally damaging gusts can occur over the central Appalachians and along the immediate Atlantic coast.

The air progressing eastward in the wake of the storm is chilly, but far from the levels of cold felt this past week.

Temperatures will reach the 50s and 60s over much of the mid-Atlantic this weekend but generally stop in the lower 30s over northern New England. Temperatures will be slashed by 15-30 degrees from Sunday to Tuesday.

Download the free AccuWeather app to stay up to date on the storm including timing with MinuteCast™ in your area.