The vernal equinox occurs at 6:45 EDT this evening and crocuses are about to bloom in Morningside Park, but winter has other plans before ceding its place to spring. Snow is expected to begin by early afternoon as a low pressure system heads northeastward from the Virginia coast toward Cape Cod.
The snowfall amounts and timing are a bit tricky to predict as the snow will be falling through a very dry lowest mile of the atmosphere and that layer needs to get saturated before we see much snow near the ground. It looks like the heaviest snow will occur from late this afternoon through the evening rush hour. Most forecasts put the city in the 3 to 6 inch range of snowfall, with lower amounts north of the city and somewhat higher accumulations in central New Jersey.
Tomorrow's forecast depends on how quickly it takes for a cold front to arrive down from Canada. There is a wedge of warm air between today's storm and that cold front. The Weather Channel says the wedge will reach the city and we'll see a high near 50 degrees. The National Weather Service does not believe we'll get that wedge and keeps Saturday's high to the lower 40s.
Cold air will definitely be here by Sunday when everyone agrees the high will be within a couple degrees of 40. More of the same unseasonably cold weather is expected on Monday but the temperature should slowly climb to the mid 50s by late next week.
