Weekend Winter Storm Takes Aim at Long Island

Long Island may have missed out on accumulating snow in the last two storms on December 20th and 26th, but the next one has the bullseye right over us.

A snowstorm, set to strike Saturday, will bring accumulating snowfall with estimates from multiple meteorologists all over the place.

The storm will approach the northeast in a classic winter storm pattern – heading up from the south in a northeastern direction, intensifying a bit off of the east coast and then pulling out from the area. The snowstorm should start early in the day on Saturday, around 8 a.m., and begin to taper off around 8 p.m., bringing some 12 straight hours of continuous snowfall.

The National Weather Service is forecasting an all-snow event, although only about 2 inches of total snowfall. Other weather forecasters, including The Weather Channel also have the same total, affected by possible mixing along the coast.

"There is a low possibility that the system track will shift to the west," the National Weather Service said in its Hazardous Weather Outlook statement at 4:50 a.m. "Which could result in some areas reaching warning level snowfall amounts."

Still other forecasts have shown intensification of the storm near Long Island combined with cold temperatures, creating a much more snowy forecasted amount.

"The hardest part is what the temperature will be from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.," News 12 meteorologist Rich Hoffman wrote on his Facebook page. "If the temperature is cold for all snow, 6 inches is a good forecast." Hoffman also said if surface temperatures reached 35°, 1 to 3 inches of snow would be his expected totals.

As of 12 noon Friday, the National Weather Service has not issued a Winter Weather Advisory or Winter Storm Watch for our area.

Any snow lovers will also enjoy this tidbit – meterologists are already monitoring forecast models showing another storm right behind this one – making it four-in-a-row – that could bring a heavy amount of snowfall on January 2nd/3rd.