New York May Get 13 Inches of Snow Starting Tomorrow Morning Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Brian K. Sullivan
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The National Weather Service boosted its forecast for tomorrow’s snowstorm in New York City, saying that as much as 13 inches may fall and that travel in the region may be “very hazardous or impossible.”
A winter storm warning goes into effect at 6 a.m. tomorrow. It calls for 7 to 13 inches (18 to 33 centimeters), up from earlier predictions of 5 to 10 inches, according to a weather service bulletin. The storm may be accompanied by wind gusts as high as 30 mph before it abates about 36 hours later.
“Expect the steadiest and heaviest snow to fall from mid- morning Thursday through Thursday evening,” according to the statement. “Snow may mix with rain for brief periods of time on Thursday. If no mixing-in occurs, amounts will be up towards the higher end of the range, if not more.”
The storm is the latest in an El Nino-driven weather pattern that has pushed moist air across the southern U.S., where it has mixed with colder air coming down from the Arctic, said Matt Rogers, president of private forecaster Commodity Weather Group in Bethesda, Maryland.
The result has been record-breaking seasonal snows from Washington to Philadelphia. El Nino is a warming of the Pacific Ocean that occurs every two to five years and lasts about 12 months.
Flights Canceled
Continental Airlines Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. carrier, canceled all flights tomorrow from Newark Liberty International Airport by regional partners including Continental Express and Pinnacle Airlines Corp.’s Colgan unit, said Mary Clark, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based carrier. The cancellations involve “several hundred” flights, Clark said. She didn’t immediately have a more specific number.
Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s largest carrier, scrubbed 65 flights in the New York area for tomorrow, said Susan Elliott, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based company. UAL Corp.’s United Airlines scrapped 70 flights today because of weather and is “still evaluating our plan for tomorrow,” said Sarah Massier, a spokeswoman.
Amtrak canceled 8 trains for tomorrow on its Empire Service lines in the upstate New York area, said a spokeswoman, Karina Romero.
A winter storm warning, meaning heavy snow, ice and freezing rain are imminent, has been issued from Maryland to Maine, according to the weather service. In northern New Jersey, as much as 18 inches of snow may fall, the agency said.
‘Strong Winds’ Possible
“Strong winds are also possible,” the weather service statement for New York and New Jersey said. “This will make travel very hazardous or impossible.”
In Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut, where as much as 3 inches of rain may fall, flood watches have been issued.
“It is a really complicated system, it is like a three- part deal,” Rogers said. “It is definitely going to be what they call a bomb in meteorology.”
Tomorrow’s snow will be from the second storm to hit the area this week. A system brought rain to New York City and almost two feet of snow to western Massachusetts starting yesterday, disrupting air traffic in Newark, Boston, Baltimore and New York.
“The Northeast is being impacted by one storm now, and the monster storm is going to impact the region tomorrow into Friday,” Eric Wilhelm of private forecaster AccuWeather.com. said earlier today. “A really complex situation is developing in the Northeast.”
Power Failures Likely
On the Massachusetts coast, sustained winds of 30 mph are expected with gusts as intense as 50 mph, according to a weather service high wind watch issued for the area.
“There could be real problems with power outages,” Wilhelm said. “That could be the real legacy of this storm.”
More than 50,000 customers in the Albany area and western Massachusetts are already without power from the storm moving north through New England today, according to utilities.
High winds may also create wind-chill problems that will drive energy consumption, Rogers said. Temperatures in the region are expected to be in the 30s Fahrenheit, while the wind will make it feel colder.
Demand for heating oil may be 8 percent above normal through March 3, according to Weather Derivatives, a Belton, Missouri, forecaster. Heating oil for March delivery rose 0.98 cent, or 0.5 percent, today to settle at $2.0421 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Snowfall for Washington
The Washington-Baltimore corridor has the potential to receive as much as 5 inches of snow in the storm, according to Brandon Peloquin, a weather service meteorologist in Sterling, Virginia.
“There is some uncertainty with this storm,” Peloquin said by telephone. “There is some wiggle room. The track is critical.”
The storms will add to what’s already been a benchmark winter in the eastern U.S., where seasonal snowfall records were broken in Washington and Baltimore. Most of that snow has melted away, Peloquin said.
The heavy snow will taper off the day after tomorrow, although snow flurries and clouds will linger over much of the Northeast through the weekend, Wilhelm said.
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