Region to get hammered by blizzard
Stock up on milk and bread. Fill up the gas tank and fire up the snowblower.
We’re about to get hammered.
A late winter blizzard packing winds of up to 50 miles per hour could dump up to 18 inches of snow across the region beginning early Tuesday morning and continuing all day Tuesday before tapering off at night. And that could mean one and possibly two days off from school for students.
Gary Lessor, metereologist and the assistant director of The Weather Center at Western Connecticut State University, said Sunday night that he is “highly confident” that the storm will pan out as advertised. A blizzard watch has been posted for New York City, Long Island and coastal Connecticut.
“The only thing that is saving us is that it’s a quick-moving storm,” he said.
He said if the storm, which could dump a few inches of snow an hour at its height, moved more slowly, the region could be facing a storm like the one in 2013 that dropped 3 feet of snow across New England.
If the storm does track a bit more to the west, however, Lessor said coastal southeastern Connecticut could get some sleet and even rain that could slightly decrease snow amount totals.
Sustained winds of 25-30 mph are forecast with gusts of more than 50 mph. Despite the high winds, Lessor said, there should only be minor coastal flooding. Inland snow amounts could range from 14 to 22 inches.
Once the storm passes, Lessor said, the snow will remain as colder than normal temperatures are forecast next week.
Lessor explained the storm will be the result of two systems — one now over the Plains States and moisture from the Gulf Coast, colliding off the Delaware coast and then rapidly intensifying.
The storm will cap a mild winter with little snow and just one week after temperatures reached the fifties.
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