As much snow fell Friday in Memphis, Tenn., as typically falls over an entire season. That city’s 3-5” accumulations are but the opening salvo of a winter storm expected to race into the Boston-New York-Washington, D.C. corridor with 6-10” of snow amid increasing winds. Rapid intensification once the system has access to moisture and heat energy over the Atlantic Saturday threatens to turn the snowstorm into a blizzard over New York City and coastal southern New England including Boston. Winds there could gust to 50 m.p.h. as hourly snow rates increase to 2-3” per hour Saturday night.
Though well to its west, Chicago isn’t completely escaping the storm’s impact. North winds between the East Coast low and a sprawling Canadian high in the Rockies set the stage for the city’s second lake-snow event in four days. Wind trajectories off the “warm” lake waters favor waves of lake-enhanced snowfall of varying intensities Saturday.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
