3rd nor'easter in days could bring more than a foot of snow
BOSTON -- Winter-weary New Englanders are preparing for blizzard conditions, a foot or more of snow and high winds as the third major nor'easter in two weeks bears down on the Northeast. The National Weather Service on Monday issued a winter storm warning for much of New England and a winter weather advisory for eastern New York and Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey, even as residual power outages from the previous storm linger.
The storm is expected to hit about midnight and last through most of the day Tuesday, with snow accumulating at a rate of 2 inches per hour during the Tuesday morning commute.
While the first two storms of the month brought coastal flooding and hundreds of thousands of power outages, this winter monster is a little bit different.
"This one's main impact is going to be snow," said Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Taunton, Massachusetts.
More power outages are possible, but they are not expected to be as widespread as last week. Only minor coastal flooding is possible.
Wind gusts as high as 65 mph (104 kph) are forecast in coastal areas.
Boston and eastern Massachusetts, as well as Rhode Island, could get a foot and a half of snow, with less to the west of the city.
According to CBS Boston, people in eastern Massachusetts could see blizzard conditions due to the intensity of the snow, combined with frequent winds that lower the visibility. The area could even see up to 18 inches of snow.
Maine is also bracing for a hard hit. The Portland International Jetport has had 75.5 inches (1.9 meters) of snow, far above the normal for the date of 51.8 inches (1.3 meters) with another 12 to 18 inches is on the way, said James Brown, of the National Weather Service.
In New York, heavy, wet snow is forecast for Long Island, which could get 5 to 10 inches of accumulation, while 2 to 4 inches are possible in New York City.
In New Jersey, the storm is expected to start out as light rain in most areas, then turn to a wintry mix before changing over to all snow by early Tuesday, leaving behind anywhere from 1 to 4 inches.
"Hopefully this will be the final punch of the winter," Buttrick said.
Blizzard conditions are likely occur at times in eastern Mass. due to the intensity of the snow combined with the frequent, gusty winds lowering the visibility to near zero.
With a slightly more easterly fringe storm track, you could take 10-20 mph off the peak winds above. Certainly minimizing the damage and overall impact if this were the case.
Much of central and eastern Mass. will end up with over a foot of sow.
In fact, we're forecasting 14-to-18 in eastern Mass. At this point, if there's any change that I could see making to this map it would be to raise numbers even more.
