Forecasters watching chance for major snowfall Friday into Saturday

Heavy show could fall in an area stretching from Washington, D.C.to Philadelphia to the New York City area, and including the Harrisburg region, according to AccuWeather. The storm could shut down highways and perhaps cause airport closures. This track appears to be less likely at this time. “The jury is still out here on who is going to get hit hardest by the storm and where it’s going to hit”.

The wintry mix will ramp up over the southern Appalachians during Thursday night.

The exact track of this low as it progresses up the coast will be the key as to whether the precipitation along the I-95 corridor remains as all snow, or whether we see a changeover to sleet, freezing rain or rain.

A wet or wintry mix scenario is most likely from northeastern North Carolina to southeastern Virginia, part of the Delmarva Peninsula and southern New Jersey.

As far as snow accumulation maps are concerned, we are going to hold off on releasing those just yet as the difference between seeing a few inches of snow or well over a foot in portions of the mid-Atlantic region, may be less than 100 miles. Beginning late Friday and early Saturday, High pressure over Kansas and Oklahoma will combine with the Coastal low to create a flow that will generate topographic snow along the Appalachian chain with light snow continuing throughout Kentucky into portions Tennessee.

While it is still too early to speculate on snowfall totals at any specific location, confidence is relatively high (for a system still 5 days away) that travel across much of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast will be impacted by this storm.

The storm is expected to land in the Big Apple between 3 p.m. Friday and 3 a.m. Saturday and finish between 3 p.m. Saturday and 3 a.m. Sunday, said Accuweather senior meteorologist Dave Dombek. Snow will diminish to flurries across the mid-Atlantic during the morning, but snow and blowing snow is expected into the afternoon from Southern New England, including Boston, to eastern NY and Pennsylvania.

Should the storm take a more southerly track, mostly snow would fall from western and northern North Carolina and southern Virginia to DE and southern New Jersey. The I-95 swath and the northern and western suburbs from Washington, D.C., to Boston might be spared the worst from the storm in this case.