John Ghiorse: This Could Be an Epic Storm

John Ghiorse: This Could Be an Epic Storm

“Blizzard of '15”

It has taken a while but winter is finally getting underway … BIG TIME! Yesterday's few inches were just a prelude to what appears to be one of the biggest and most intense snowstorms in recent years. Of course, the storm has not yet formed but most all of the indicators and forecast models consistently have been pointing to it for a couple of days now.

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A weaker storm over the Midwest today is expected to move off the Mid-Atlantic coast tomorrow and intensify rapidly tomorrow night and Tuesday as it moves slowly by us, perhaps looping like the Blizzard of '78. The intensity of the snow, combined with the slow movement could give many of us more than 2 feet of snow before it's all over … the faster it moves, the less snow we can expect and vice-versa.

The National Weather Service has already posted a Blizzard Watch for our area. A Blizzard is defined as a storm that produces blowing and falling snow that reduces visibility to ¼ or less with sustained or frequent wind gusts of 35mph or greater for a period of 3 hours or longer. On the face of it, this storm certainly qualifies.

Snow should begin on our area late tomorrow become heavy overnight and continue through Tuesday, possibly not ending until sometime early Wednesday. New data coming in over the next 24 hours will help me to fill in more details but at this point all Southeastern New Englanders should prepare for a storm that will paralyze travel and, indeed, cause major life-style disruptions for just about all of us.