AM WEATHER UPDATE: Blizzard May Bring Up to 3 Feet of Snow

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Friday, February 08, 2013

John Ghiorse, GoLocalWorcester Meteorologist

We’ve been talking about it for the past few days and now, this morning, it’s on our doorstep. As of 6am light snow flurries have been noted here in Southern New England and the main snow area on radar is rapidly approaching Long Island and headed in our direction.

Remarkably the forecast has not changed much for the past couple of days and I don’t see any reason to change it at this point. The storm center is beginning to get its act together off the Mid-Atlantic coast. It will move slowly northeastward today and tonight while rapidly intensifying. As for accumulation, there have been many number combinations spread around but the way I see it there should be somewhere between 18” and up to 3 feet or so on the ground when all is said and done later Saturday. Frankly, it’s going to be hard to measure accurately since the howling northeast winds between 30 and 65 mph will pile up massive drifts of 5-10 feet in some areas. There probably won’t be a level spot in your backyard to measure the snow accurately.

It still looks like the most intense part of the storm with the heaviest snowfall will be from late today through tonight into tomorrow morning although the snow will begin to accumulate in earnest this afternoon. Winds will pick up slowly today with the strongest gusts tonight and early tomorrow. I still expect considerable power outages to occur along with heavy coastal flooding and battering along the Eastern Massachusetts coastline.

All of your personal preparations for the storm should be completed by now. I will continue to update, especially if the situation and forecast outlook changes appreciably from this point on.