Snowstorm to trigger travel headaches in Northeast -- and unleash 1st taste of winter for some

By Jake Sojda, AccuWeather meteorologist

Published Nov. 4, 2019 11:22 AM | 

Updated Nov. 5, 2019 1:03 PM

A fast-moving Alberta Clipper system will join forces with a larger storm developing in the southern Plains to bring a blanket of disruptive snow across much of the Northeast late this week.

"Residents throughout the Northeast, from Pittsburgh to Buffalo, New York, Boston and Bangor, Maine, will want to keep a close eye on this system for the potential for slippery, slushy roads and significant travel delays Thursday night and Friday," Tom Kines, AccuWeather senior meteorologist, said.

Rain will first push eastward through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys Wednesday night and Thursday, but it will run into colder air to the north.

"The precipitation will start as rain for most as it moves through the Ohio Valley into parts of the mid-Atlantic Thursday afternoon," Brett Anderson, AccuWeather senior meteorologist, said.

Farther north, snow will break out Thursday across the eastern Great Lakes into New England as a clipper system moving shifts eastward and gets absorbed by the larger storm to the south.

Rain will change to snow later Thursday and Thursday night across parts of the western Ohio Valley and interior parts of the mid-Atlantic as the storm strengthens and curves north, pulling in colder air on the backside of the storm.

While a major snowstorm is not anticipated, residents across much of northern and western Pennsylvania, most of upstate New York and interior New England are likely to wake up with a fresh blanket of snow Friday morning.

During the day Friday, snow will pivot northward through northern New England and into Canada as the storm tracks into Atlantic Canada. It will also turn increasingly windy throughout the Northeast as the storm will begin to intensify more rapidly.

Blizzard conditions may develop from interior Maine into New Brunswick as the storm quickly strengthens.

In the southern portion of the storm, snow amounts are generally expected to range from 1 to 3 or 3 to 6 inches, with a few locally higher totals. Interior New England, around the Green and White mountains, northward into Maine and New Brunswick, will bear the brunt of this storm. Snowfall totals of 6 to 12 inches are likely in these areas, with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 18 inches.

The Friday morning commute could be very slick across much of Pennsylvania and New York through central and northern New England, including places like Pittsburgh, Albany, New York, and Portland, Maine.

To the south, while some snow could mix in with rain for a time before precipitation ends, most of the storm will bring a cold, driving rain from New York City through Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.

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Where colder air will be more firmly entrenched at the onset of the storm, in cities like Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, the storm may start by dropping snow before precipitation turns over to rain. Then, it could change back to snow again Thursday night and Friday, depending on how close the storm tracks to the southern New England coast and how quickly it turns north.

While a significant flooding or severe thunderstorm threat is not anticipated in the Southeast, some downpours and thunderstorms will press across the region. The storms will mark the advance of some of the coldest air of the season throughout the region.

Download the free AccuWeather app to see predicted snow amounts for your area. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.