It looks one more good snowstorm will hit the northeast United States before spring starts next week.
The storm — expected to begin this evening and die down Wednesday — will have two parts, said Aaron Tyburski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Bureau in State College. The Bradford area could see up to a foot of snow this week.
It will consist of “steady snow that will come overnight Monday to Tuesday morning,” followed by lake effect snow Tuesday into Wednesday.
“Looks like we’re going to see snow develop on Monday evening,” he said, explaining that this first part is from a storm system off the Atlantic coast near Delaware and New Jersey. “As we’ll see, looks like the snow will begin close to sunset Monday evening.”
It will start light, but the intensity will increase that night, Tyburski said, explaining the heaviest snowfall will be from 3 to 8 a.m. By this point, the Bradford area is expected to have 5 to 6 inches of snow.
Tyburski said there will probably be issues for motorists during rush hour Tuesday morning.
The coastal storm system is just the first part to hit the northern Pennsylvania counties of McKean, Potter and Warren, according to Tyburski, who said these upper counties will then be hit with “more typical lake effect” snow as Tuesday moves along. Residents will want to be mindful of squalls that will pop up in the area that day.
People may see snowy conditions at the start of Wednesday, but Tyburski expects precipitation will be “diminishing during the day on Wednesday.”
Between the snowstorms on Monday through Wednesday, there will be “probably see 10 to 12 inches of snow for the area.”
Snow may be coming, but residents shouldn’t have to worry about a couple other weather-related dangers we’ve seen this year: winter storms earlier in 2017 brought freezing rain, and the area was plagued by high winds late last week. “Looks like it’s mainly snow for a change,” said Tyburski.
Snowstorms seem out of place with spring just one week away, but it’s not uncommon weather for this time of year, according to Tyburski. “March is a month where we’ve actually had some pretty big snowfalls,” he said, noting the area has had “two or three events over 20 inches.”
The storm will leave the area with lower-than-normal temperatures mid-week.
Tyburski said it will be “rather cold on Wednesday — maybe only in the lower teens. As the storm pulls away, it’s going to be quite chilly for a couple of days.”
Normal average temperatures for this week are highs around 45 degrees and lows around 20-22 degrees, he said. “It will start to get close to that next Sunday,” but he noted it will be a gradual change, with temperatures in the 20s on Thursday, the mid-30s on Friday and Saturday.
For the first day of spring on Monday, “It looks like it will be right around normal,” with a high in the mid-40s and low in the mid-20s.
Tyburski noted the snowstorm and cold temperatures are probably more shocking to residents after experiencing one of the warmest Februaries on record. “We kind of got the rug pulled out from under us.”
