Chances of a winter storm across the Northeast ahead of Valentine’s Day this week are rising, breaking up a streak of milder temperatures in recent weeks, though there’s still a lot of uncertainty in the forecast about the intensity and potential snow accumulations.
The storm will likely start in the Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic, central Appalachians and southern New England as a mixture of rain and wet snow throughout the day Monday, but by Monday night into Tuesday, precipitation is poised to become snow in the central Appalachians, the upper mid-Atlantic and New England, according to AccuWeather forecasters.
New York City and Philadelphia will likely see lighter snow around an inch, though more snow is possible just north of Manhattan and in the suburbs north and west of Philadelphia, according to AccuWeather.
Plowable snow is possible in Boston, though the National Weather Service says forecasts “still need to fine tune the exact track and intensity.”
Still, there remains a lot of uncertainty in the forecasts—particularly in the region between I-78 and I-95 where there’s a chance for heavier snowfall, but that will depend on how quickly precipitation transitions into snow, according to the National Weather Service.
Regardless of snowfall, travel conditions along I-95 may be difficult due to rain and fog, and airline delays are a possibility as snow hits major cities, AccuWeather warned.
“A weaker storm that fails to gather cold air and tracks farther to the south may fail to produce much snow,” according to AccuWeather. “If the storm intensifies rapidly near the Northeast coast, rain may transition to heavy, accumulating snow in the zone from New York City to Philadelphia and perhaps Washington, D.C.”
The storm comes as the Northeast has been experiencing unseasonably warm weather that’s set to continue through this weekend. The National Weather Service in New York says temperatures will be near 60 on Saturday in the New York City metropolitan area.
The storm might dash hopes for the early spring that Punxsutawney Phil and other weather-guessing animals predicted on Groundhog’s Day earlier this week.
