This weather update provides information on various weather phenomena across different regions:
As a storm system along the Gulf Coast tracks eastward Friday night, heavy rain with embedded thunderstorms will spread into portions of the southeastern U.S. Stronger thunderstorms will carry a localized threat for tornadoes, damaging straight line winds and flash flooding. The heaviest rain is expected along the central and eastern Gulf Coast with most folks likely picking up 1-2 inches, but localized totals over 3 to 4 inches will be possible through Saturday evening. Areas of freezing rain will develop across western North Carolina and western Virginia into portions of the southern and central Appalachians Friday night.Ice accretion of 0.10 to 0.25 inches will be possible through Saturday evening which will have impacts to travel and may lead to power outages and tree damage.
Farther north, as the storm’s associated area of low pressure tracks northward along the East Coast, heavy snow is expected to develop by Saturday afternoon over portions of the interior Mid-Atlantic, spreading into the Northeast late Saturday through Sunday morning. The low pressure center is forecast to remain over water as it strengthens, just south of the New England coast, through Sunday morning. Gusty onshore winds may lead to minor coastal flooding for the Mid-Atlantic and New England coastline as the low approaches the region, especially during the Sunday morning high tide cycle. Snowfall accumulations of 6 to 12 inches are expected mainly north and west of I-95 from Philadelphia to Providence but locally higher accumulations will be possible for portions of the Catskills into the Berkshires and portions of south-central New England including the northern/western Boston suburbs. The winter storm will depart toward the east during the day on Sunday, bringing an end to the snow for a majority of New England by late evening but gusty winds will remain.
Across the West, a powerful storm system is expected to reach the Pacific Northwest early on Saturday, with locally heavy rain along the coast and heavy snow into the Cascades. As the upper level disturbance associated with the storm system tracks into the Interior West, areas of coastal rain and heavy mountain snow will shift southward across California on Saturday with winds in the mountains gusting into the 50-60 mph range, locally higher. Widespread snow and gusty winds will impact much of the western U.S. as the storm system advances further inland this weekend with heavy snow into the higher terrain of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.
This storm system is expected to emerge over the central U.S. early next week as a powerful storm with significant impacts possible, stretching eventually to the East Coast by mid-week.
