Following another stretch of mild weather early this week, a brief shot of Arctic air will return to the Northeast during the second half of the week and be accompanied by narrow, but intense, lake-effect snow squalls.
High temperatures in Philadelphia reached the 50s on Monday and 60s on Tuesday, with highs near 50 reaching as far north as Boston. Even in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, highs on Tuesday reached or exceeded the 50 F mark.
However, a cold front that moved through the Northeast on Tuesday night will usher in much colder and even unseasonably cold conditions by Wednesday in the Great Lakes region and interior Northeast, reaching the coast by Thursday.
The coldest day in the western Great Lakes region and Upper Midwest will be Wednesday, when low temperatures in Minneapolis can approach 10 degrees below zero.
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Farther east, Thursday will be the most harsh in the Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic and New England. Highs on the coldest day this week will be some 20 to 30 degrees below what they were on the warmest day earlier in the week in most spots.
When compared to normal for late February, temperatures will be about 10 to 15 degrees below normal across the Upper Midwest, northern Great Lakes region and New England, and about 5 to 10 degrees below normal from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic.
Lows on Friday morning will fall below zero in northern New England, into the single digits between the Interstate 80 and I-90 corridors and into the lower 20s in the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to New York City.
“Without much wind to accompany the cold, AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures will not be too far below the actual air temperature reading,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Courtney Travis said. “During the day, when the sun is shining, RealFeel® Temperatures may actually be a little higher than the actual air temperature.”
In comparison to the blast of Arctic air that froze the central and eastern parts of the nation late last week, the lowest temperatures with this shot of Arctic air should be about 5-10 degrees higher. AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures will be considerably higher than that given the lack of strong winds.
“Even though this Arctic outbreak will not be as intense as late last week, it will last a little while longer,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.
Sosnowski added that this cold outbreak will last between two and three days in any one location, whereas the blast from last week was limited to one or two days.
Still, people heading out the door to work or school this week should make sure to wear protective layers and gloves to prevent the chance of frostbite.
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In addition to the cold, an added danger with this cold blast will be narrow but intense and persistent bands of lake-effect snow downwind of lakes Superior, Ontario and Erie.
Lake-effect snow squalls will pound the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from Wednesday into Wednesday night before subsiding on Thursday. Farther east, cities such as Syracuse, New York, and Erie, Pennsylvania, will receive the worst squalls from Wednesday night into Thursday.
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Since winds will generally be northwesterly from Wednesday into Thursday, areas not typically hit the hardest by lake-effect snow will get targeted this week.
Syracuse may receive as much as 6 or more inches of snow from Wednesday night into Thursday morning with the narrow band of snow expected to set up right over the city.
As is typically the case with lake-effect snow, a distance of only 5-10 miles can separate nearly 1 foot of snow from virtually no snow at all.
Motorists traveling on portions of I-81 and I-90 in western New York should be prepared for rapid reductions in roadway visibility and drastically reduce speed in potentially white-out conditions.
Although the lake-effect snow bands will be narrow, the sudden shift of traveling on dry roads and in ideal visibility to encountering snow-covered roads and near-zero visibility can increase the risk of multi-vehicle pileups.
By Thursday night and Friday, high pressure moving over the Ohio River Valley will force very dry air into the Northeast, in effect shutting off the lake-effect snow machine.
As the high pressure moves into the western Atlantic, southwesterly winds will bring milder air building in the center of the nation on Friday back into the Northeast just in time for the weekend.
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