South, East brace for big storm, significant snowfall

The city will start to get snow late Friday night into Saturday morning.

A system of low pressure developing over the Central Plains will lift across the Gulf states Thursday night and over the Southeast states Friday, Minnick said.

Winter Storm Jonas (and a little further south, Winter Storm Ilias) are coming, and the National Weather Service describes the oncoming weather as both a “textbook” example of flawless winter storm conditions and “potentially crippling”. “The further north of the Pike you are, the less likely you’ll see snow“.

Another scenario has the storm approaching NY slowly and shifting toward the south.

In early Wednesday’s storm, the Indianapolis metropolitan area saw 1½ to 2½ inches of snow. It will be breezy across our area, but severe wind gusts are not expected, nor are blizzard conditions (visibility at or below 0.25 miles for 3+ hours)… however, white out conditions will occur on and off through the day and night.

Those projections will cover the first two-thirds of the anticipated storm period, from Friday afternoon through 7 p.m. Saturday, said meteorologist Jared Klein.

The hazardous weather outlook issued by the National Weather Service is in effect from Thursday night through Saturday afternoon, and includes nearby counties Richmond, Stanly and several others across the central part of the state.

Tonight there is a 20 percent chance of precipitation with a low around the freezing mark in Jackson city limits.

“Very often with these types of storms, there are a lot of questions about if it will be cold enough to produce snowfall, [because] sometimes it turns into an all-rain event”, says Niziol.

Potential accumulations for a foot or more of snow.

The impact will be significant, with wetter snow possible, creating concern that it will stick to trees and power lines and cause electrical outages, the National Weather Service said.

But meteorologist Matthew Belk said it depends on the storm’s track.

New York City and surrounding areas won’t be spared either, but meteorologists don’t think the Big Apple will get the full wallop.

This will contribute to beach erosion and coastal flooding (especially during high tide).

Almost 2 feet of snow fell in February 2010’s “Snowmaggedon” storm, which cut power to hundreds of thousands in the region.