A historic blizzard is slowly pulling away from New England as of Tuesday evening. This storm dropped feet of snow, and brought strong wind gusts to much of the area. Blizzard conditions were achieved across much of coastal Maine and Massachusetts. Forecasting error resulted in over-preparedness for much of the mid-atlantic coastline, including New York and Philadelphia.
NEW YORKERS OVER-PREPARED
The NWS in NYC, NY forecasted 20-30 inches of snow across much of the NYC metro area. The NWS in Mount Holly, NJ followed shortly after. Blizzard warnings went up across the entire NYC metro area as well as Long Island and portions of the New Jersey coastline. Most models began trending away from these amounts on Monday, however most forecasters (Myself included) stuck with the one outlying model, the Euro model. By Monday night, I shifted my highest amounts east (not enough, but an attempt at least). Tuesday, many in Philadelphia woke up with less than an inch of snowfall, and in NYC with less than 12". Now, it isn't to say that NYC didn't feel significant impacts from this snowfall, around 11" still fell, but that's a far cry from the 20-30" sited in the NWS blizzard warning issued Sunday evening. Needless to say, the Euro model was wrong, and the GFS model was right. However, there is no need for some of the things I have seen all over social media today. If you think, that just because a meteorologist got one forecast wrong, they aren't a good meteorologist, you are sadly mistaken. I got the Philadelphia region wrong (Had 8-12" there as of Monday night) but it doesn't mean that I got the entire storm wrong. Much of New England got the snowfall they were expecting. Please, don't pick on METS out of Philly, it's not their fault.
As this storm pulls away, I am monitoring the potential for yet another storm to impact the area early next week. See the winter weather center for details.
As this storm pulls away, I am monitoring the potential for yet another storm to impact the area early next week. See the winter weather center for details.