The weekend’s storm intensified into a powerful Nor’easter that prompted Blizzard Warnings all along the East Coast.
USA, — According to the National Weather Service, the storm is now officially a bomb cyclone. The center pressure of the low-pressure system dropped more than 24 millibars in 24 hours, which just means the storm intensified at an incredible rate.
For as historic and memorable as this nor’easter may be, here in Northeastern and Central PA, we were certainly spared.
Last week, the Stormtracker 16 Team explained how important the track would be, and a shift of the storm just 50 miles to the west would mean a drastically different storm for us.
That’s the difficulty in forecasting a nor’easter, a coastal storm that intensifies as it moves north.
Despite the fact that many models predicted some significant snowfall totals for days and even hours leading up to the storm, one model consistently showed a track far enough east to keep totals down for our area. That was the European model, Kurt’s favorite.
Another aspect of the storm, and a big difference from all of the other storms this winter, was the temperature. The high on Sunday in the WNEP Backyard was 38 degrees. It was above freezing for most of the day, not dropping below freezing until after sunset. So even the snow that did fall during the day was not accumulating at first, and some rain even mixed in in spots as well. Models are not going to do a good job factoring in those other atmospheric influences.
All of the other models came down with projected totals as the day progressed on Sunday, as the storm really began to take shape, and that southeast track became so clear. When all was said and done, the Poconos received the most amount of snow in our area, more than 5 inches in spots.