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.
