(Bloomberg) — New York City will get its first significant snowstorm of the winter, threatening to make a mess of Friday morning’s commute with up to 5 inches (13 centimeters) expected to fall overnight.
Winter weather advisories stretch from southern Connecticut and Long Island to northern New Jersey, with the storm expected to start late Thursday night and begin in earnest by 1 a.m. Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Short-range models call for the system to reach a peak just as the morning commute starts, with flakes falling at more than 1 inch per hour.
Officials have been sending crews out in advance of the storm and are in regular contact with utility companies, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said during a briefing Thursday. “We’re ready for this,” Hochul said.
The storm is part of larger system that may dump snow from Missouri through the southern Appalachian region to the East Coast, with the heaviest accumulations expected in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. Nashville may get as much as 6 inches Thursday and the mountains of West Virginia could get as much 12 inches, according to Ryan Truchelut, president of Weather Tiger LLC. Boston, which is forecast to get up to 8 inches, has closed public schools on Friday.
The storm will blow through the New York City region quickly, followed by gusty winds and then rain that will probably wash away the snow starting Sunday evening. “The Northeast corridor will warm up over the weekend,” Truchelut said. “We won’t be cold for an extended period.”
So far, New York’s Central Park has received 0.2 inches of snow this season, which is 6.1 inches below normal, according to the National Weather Service.
(Adds statement from New York Governor in the third paragraph. )
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
