Wet/snowy Mid Atlantic, very windy in West

[Jeb]

Wet East and windy parts of the West

1:50 P.M. ET 2/3/2005

 

M. Ressler, Sr. Meteorologist, The Weather Channel

 

 

With only marginally cold air, light to moderate snow is falling from western New York to northern and western Virginia. Additional accumulations will range from under an inch to 3 inches. From Tidewater Virginia and the Delmarva to northern Florida, rain is the story with some additional amounts approaching an inch. The rain is mixed with a little sleet at times around the lower Chesapeake Bay region. Moisture backing from the Atlantic and Gulf of Maine into eastern New England will bring a little rain or wintry mix to Down East Maine, coastal New Hampshire and northeast Massachusetts. Already, some light rain has fallen across Cape Cod, the islands and parts of Rhode Island.

 

The combination of high pressure over the Rockies and Great Basin and the upper-level low over Baja is producing gusty east-to-northeast winds over Southern California, Arizona and southwest New Mexico. The strongest winds are occurring through the mountain passes and canyons from east and south of Los Angeles to the Mexico border. Gusts have already reached 57 mph as of 10 a.m. PST in Julian and could top 60 mph in other canyon and pass areas during the afternoon. Meanwhile, westerly down sloping winds are increasingly across Montana and Wyoming. Winds will be the strongest in northwest Montana in the vicinity of Cut Bank where gusts could reach between 60 and 80 mph through some of the passes.