February frenzy of storms kicks off in the Northeast

AccuWeather

The icy storm on Feb. 6 was the first of multiple winter storms on the way to the Northeast this month.

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00:00We are preparing for several more winter storms, the first of which will kick off this weekend,

00:05and we're calling this the February Frenzy as a series of storms continues to parade across the

00:09U.S. with significant impacts. So to help us break down the details, we're now joined by

00:14AccuWeather meteorologist and Northeast expert Dave Dombeck. Dave, thanks for making time for us

00:18yet again today. A very active day. If we were just to briefly look back at this morning,

00:24what were some of the biggest impacts in the big cities of the Northeast?

00:26Well, I guess it was that period of icing, especially north and west of Philadelphia,

00:33New York City, for example. In the cities itself, it was mostly wet, just some spotty ice,

00:38but as you get outside of the city, that's where it got icier. The snow was actually,

00:44you really had to get a little bit farther north to get any appreciable snow,

00:48so that was a little bit on the low side as far as our accumulations go, but certainly ice was

00:54an issue and temperatures. It was like pulling teeth trying to get those temperatures above

00:58freezing this morning in some of those interior areas. And Dave, we have another storm. This one,

01:04at first glance, may look kind of similar this weekend to what we just endured,

01:09although there will be some differences, especially on the colder, snowier side. So

01:13could you walk us through some of the impacts, especially with those big I-95 cities in mind

01:18again? Right, this is, you said, Jeff, it's similar, but there are also some pretty significant

01:26differences, and the main thing is just generally the atmosphere looks a little bit colder with this

01:32next storm, and also it seems like the track is a little bit farther south, which, you know,

01:37one goes with the other. It seems like it's a storm that's going to track out of the Midwest

01:41toward the Ohio Valley, and instead of it being a cutter up toward the eastern Great Lakes or

01:46whatever, it's going to come eastward only to a point, and then you'll see a secondary low, which

01:51we often see in these situations. The energy transfers over to the coast, and so we'll see

01:56a secondary development somewhere along the mid-Atlantic coast, and so that pretty much keeps

02:01all areas to the north. Once you get up into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, upstate New York and New

02:07England, it keeps that area in the cold air the entire time. Now, there will be some warming

02:13aloft up above, you know, several thousand feet up above our heads there, and so it won't be an

02:19entire storm that has all snow with it. There certainly will be other forms of precipitation,

02:25but generally everything shifted a little south from the previous storm, more cold air,

02:31and as far as some of the specifics on the cities, we're looking at a coating to an inch of some snow

02:38sleet in Philadelphia, and then it'll probably transition to some ice, and they may just end

02:45as a little bit of rain and drizzle with temperatures just above freezing there. Pretty

02:49messy Saturday night, and it's really coming very late Saturday, Saturday night. New York City,

02:54start time right around seven o'clock or so on Saturday evening, and it winds down by 7 a.m.

03:01on Sunday. It's going to come into snow. We're looking at a one to three inch snowfall. Could

03:06be a little bit more if any changeover to sleet is delayed, and the accumulations will be much

03:12higher as you get north of New York City, perhaps as much as six inches in parts of the Lehigh

03:16Valley, or the Hudson Valley, and up into Connecticut. Boston looks like it's an all-out

03:22snowstorm. All snow, four to eight inches, and that comes overnight, Saturday night, and into

03:28Sunday morning. And as far as areas a little farther west into the interior, a bit more ice

03:33in areas like Harrisburg. Again, are you expecting much freezing rain versus sleet? How do you think

03:38that breakdown will go? I know we had a lot of areas with about a half inch of sleet into parts

03:43of, say, Garrett County, Maryland last time around. Right, and I think it's again, Jeff,

03:48the farther south you go, the more ice, actual freezing rain there'll be. As you get a little

03:54bit farther north, the cold air is deeper, and so I think the amount of glaze and icing and ice

04:01accretion will be less. It'll be more in the form of sleet as opposed to freezing rain. All right,

04:06and Dave, I know it's a very loaded pattern with more coming into next week as well. We appreciate

04:11your insight as always. AccuWeather meteorologist and northeast expert Dave Dombeck. Thanks again,

04:16Dave, for that northeast insight. You bet, and I'm sure we'll be talking again in the very near future.

04:22Absolutely, yeah, we're chipping away at any kind of a snow deficit. In some areas like Boston,

04:26at least, we're catching up, and there's more coming.

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