National Weather at 1120am January 22 2005

[Jeb]

Winter Wallop

11:21 A.M. ET 1/22/2005

 

R. Hulecki, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel

 

 

A winter storm grew fangs yesterday and overnight dumping 6 to 12 inches of snow across parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and northern Illinois. Blizzard conditions have resulted in road closures in western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota along interstates 29 and 94. Blizzard conditions will continue through the afternoon across portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Powerful winds working with the freshly-fallen snow will create near zero visibilities and several feet high drifts covering area roadways and interstates. Even after the winter storm passes through the Midwest, more snow is possible for the Chicago and Milwaukee metros as a north-northeast winds sparks lake-effect snow off of Lake Michigan. Snow will mix with sleet and freezing rain across the Ohio Valley and into Kentucky. Look for heavy amounts of snow from Detroit to Cleveland. As mentioned before wind is a major issue along with the snow so look for considerable blowing and drifting snow from the Upper Midwest to the Great Lakes to across the Ohio Valley. Winds gusting between 30 and 45 mph will create wind chills between 15-25 degrees below zero today and tonight.

 

The much anticipated winter storm is slowly moving into the Northeast and will rapidly develop by this evening just off the Mid-Atlantic Coast. With cold arctic air entrenched across the Northeast and with increasing winds, look for wind chills well below zero from eastern Pennsylvania to southern New England during the storm. Snow reached the Mid-Atlantic Coast this morning and will continue to spread northeastward. Look for very heavy snow across Pennsylvania, northern Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey to Long Island and Southern New England. From D.C. to Baltimore to Wilmington, Del. to Philadelphia to Trenton to Newark and to New York City, you can expect snow totals to range from 6 to 18 inches. Cities such as D.C. may be on the lower end of that range as dry air and sleet/freezing rain may mix into the falling snow. Atlantic City, N.J. may also mix in with sleet and rain as well as some Atlantic Ocean warmth may mix into the falling snow as well. As the Midwestern area of low pressure transfers its energy to the coast and the coastal low takes over, watch for the storm to intensify rapidly as it parallels the coast of Long Island and southern New England. Because of this intensification, snow totals by Sunday afternoon from eastern Long Island to Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts may be in the 1 to 2 foot range (and that may be conservative. Look for extremely strong winds across eastern Long Island and Cape Cod on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Wind gusts may exceed 60 mph along with the heavy snow. Blizzard warnings are in place from Long Island and into much of southern New England including New York, Hartford, Providence, and Boston.