Many residents in Connecticut and Long Island were surprised by snow and sleet in addition to moderate to heavy rain this morning as a powerful coastal storm intensified.
The snow and sleet developed due to pockets of cold air sinking from 500 MB towards the surface this morning, illustrating the dynamic nature of this powerful upper low and coastal storm.
As we can see with the map to the left, these pockets of cold air are positioned on the south and west portion of the circulation leading to an intense thermal gradient over southern New England and Long Island.
As the day continues I expect the snow and sleet to become less of an occurrence, however it is rather clear that today will be a cold, raw day for much of the coastal plain from central New Jersey through Connecticut. Temperatures will struggle in the 40′s while strong northwesterly winds around 10 to 20 mph increasing to 15 to 30 mph will lead to wish chills in the 30′s through the day.
A very strong area of low pressure currently over the western Great Lakes will move into Ontario over the next 24 hours. As the low pressure system moves to the northeast, a strong cold front will gradually move east through the Northern Mid Atlantic.
The upper low that has produced showers throughout the Northern Mid Atlantic the past several days is finally starting to move east. As the upper low moves towards the Virginia coast, a new surface will develop over the New Jersey coast tonight on through tomorrow creating additional showers throughout the region. However, the majority of the showers will be focused over Connecticut, New York, northern New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania with more isolated showers for the Philadelphia metropolitan area and southern New Jersey.
A strong 700 MB disturbance is producing isolated strong thunderstorms and showers over portions of the northern Mid Atlantic this afternoon. These thunderstorms are moving southwesterly towards the New Jersey coast and New York City metropolitan area.
The upper level disturbance dropping through New England has moved slightly further south than expected this afternoon. As a result, clouds are increasing and isolated showers and weak thunderstorms are developing.