BENNINGTON — A nor’easter expected to start with mixed precipitation on Monday afternoon is expected to dump a foot or more of heavy, wet snow on Southern Vermont by Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said.
“This storm has many similarities of all the historic snowstorms of the past,” the Weather Service said in its forecast discussion Sunday afternoon.
A winter storm warning was in effect Sunday afternoon for Southern Vermont, Eastern New York and Western Massachusetts. Snow accumulations of 12 to 18 inches with higher amounts up to 20 inches in the higher elevations of the southern Greens and Berkshires are expected.
The forecast as of press time Sunday called for rain and snow likely before 2 p.m., a switch to rain between 2 and 4 p.m., and then a return to all snow after 4 p.m.
But that’s the appetizer for Monday night and Tuesday, when the jackpot is expected to arrive.
Monday night, the Weather Service expects new snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches with winds out of the east of 16-18 miles per hour, gusting up to 28 mph.
Tuesday, however, another 8-12 inches of snow is expected, with wind out of the northeast at 18-22 mph and gusting up to 33 mph.
As the storm moves east, it is expected to cause blizzard conditions, with moderate to heavy snow, reduced visibility and potentially up to 6 inches of snow in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said.
Then, on Monday night, the storm will most likely strengthen over the Northeast, where the heaviest snowfall is expected across inland areas of the region, the weather service said.
Bob Oravec, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center, said that the weather system, which he called an “average winter storm,” will probably start with rain that may transition into heavier snow in some places.
“At the moment, there’s predominantly rain forecast for New York City and for Boston, rain changing over to snow with some accumulation,” Oravec said, adding that this system would probably not be the winter event of the season for the New York metro area, where snow has been scarce.
“It just happens to be that the storm track has been such that it has not favored the Northeast so far and, in a sense, we’re running out of time,” Oravec said. “We are definitely fighting the calendar and fighting the season.”
Nor’easters, which most frequently occur between September and April, are storms where winds off the East Coast collide with surface winds from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states amid areas of low pressure.
With this nor’easter, snow rates of up to 2 inches per hour are possible, and in higher elevation areas, snowfall could ultimately surpass 1 foot of accumulation, the weather service said.
Total snowfall could be even higher in the Catskills and southern Adirondacks in New York, the Berkshires in western Massachusetts and the southern Green Mountains in Vermont.
Six inches or more could fall in Orange and Putnam counties in New York, the western part of New Jersey’s Passaic County, and Fairfield County in Connecticut, the Weather Service in New York said.
Driving conditions are expected to be hazardous, and “widespread minor coastal flooding” may occur, forecasters said.
Material from The New York Times was used in this report.
