Saturday, January 30, 2021

One Two Punch eyes down East Central PA


I'm calling our next winter storm a "One Two Punch" because it's coming in two separate phases. The first batch of snow will arrive in the form of SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS. These snow showers are possible between the hours of 9am and 3PM. As we get closer to the 3:00PM hour, areas further West will start seeing snow intensity increase. Steady snow will move further East and everyone in the area will be snowing by 5:00PM Sunday. Snow will fall off and on throughout the night Sunday. 

I'm expecting a dry slot to set up between the two events. This will occur when energy from the first storm transfers to the energy off the coast. If there's a dry slot, it will be during the morning on Monday. So you may think the storm is over, but round two is yet to come. Once round two moves in during the afternoon on Monday, it's going to snow very heavy! 1-3" per hour can't be ruled out under the heaviest bands. Heavy snow will continue into the night Monday.

Snow will become light as we head into the day on Tuesday. However, accumulating snow is still likely at this point. I'm expecting everything to completely wrap up by Tuesday evening.

WIND WILL ALSO BE AN ISSUE DURING THIS EVENT. EXPECT GUSTS TO 30MPH AT TIMES. HIGHEST GUSTS WILL OCCUR ON MONDAY.

On the map below, you can see expected snow totals. I'm going to be watching a deformation band of snow. This is an area of snow that snows very very hard for an extended period of time. If one of them set up over our area, you can expect MORE snow than what's projected. I wouldn't be surprised if someone in East Central PA picks up 3 FEET. But that's impossible to pinpoint at the current moment. We won't know for sure where that sets up until the storm is actually unfolding. But this map gives you a general idea of what to expect.