Whether you call it a bomb cyclone or a blizzard, it will be a memorable weekend weather event for some along the East Coast as January turns to February.
“This storm could dump heavy snow and gusty winds across the Southeast this weekend,” said Scott Homan, AccuWeather senior meteorologist, in a Jan. 29 email to USA TODAY.
A few snow flurries are even possible in Florida as bitterly cold air moves south across the Sunshine State.
“People need to prepare for the possibility of dangerous blizzard conditions in some coastal areas from North Carolina to the South Jersey shore,” Homan said. “Blizzard conditions could reach parts of Long Island and southern New England.”
This will lead to “severely reduced visibilities due to snow and ice that will make travel extremely treacherous,” the National Weather Service said in an online forecast.
Snow forecast for Carolinas, Virginia
Forecast guidance is in better agreement that this will be a major snowstorm for North Carolina and the Virginia Tidewater region, where more than 6 inches of snow is increasingly likely, according to Weather.com.
“For cities like Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro, North Carolina, this could be the biggest snowstorm in decades,” AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said in an online forecast. “In Norfolk, Virginia, it could top last February’s whopping 11.1 inches.”
The official forecast from the National Weather Service shows 8.4 inches in Raleigh, 7 inches in Greensboro and 6 inches in Charlotte.
Snow is also likely in parts of eastern Georgia, eastern Tennessee and southern West Virginia, the weather service said.
The weather service warned that strong winds and the weight of snow on tree limbs could bring down power lines and could cause sporadic power outages. “Travel could become dangerous or even impossible with widespread closures and possible infrastructure disruption.”
A map from the National Weather Service shows where snow impacts are most likely this coming weekend.
Snow forecast for Florida
Any snow that falls on the Florida Peninsula should be of the conversation variety – with the far bigger story being the frigid temperatures across the state. The weather service in Tampa said light mixed snow/rain showers or sleet/flurries are possible in the region on Saturday, January 31st.
More: The winter storm could intensify and hit the East Coast as a bomb cyclone
Snow forecast for Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland
Coastal areas of Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland may see some snow, but the most significant event will be strong winds. For example, Ocean City, Maryland, should collect 2 inches of snow while Dover, Delaware, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, see 1 inch of snow, according to the weather service.
There is an increasing potential for strong north-northeasterly winds, and the potential for significant coastal flooding on Sunday 1 February.
The weather service said, “this rapidly deepening storm system will produce strong onshore winds along the mid-Atlantic coast from the North Carolina Outer Banks northward. Wind gusts approaching hurricane force will coincide with astronomically high tides to produce moderate to locally significant coastal flooding.”
Snow forecast for New England
Most of the snow in New England should fall in southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
AccuWeather meteorologists believe that the most likely area in the Northeast for 6-12 inches of snow will be in southeastern Massachusetts.
A lingering question is about Boston’s snow, according to Weather.com. “It remains unclear whether the offshore low — or combination of lows — will pinwheel far enough offshore to keep any heavy snow potential attached to Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, or could pervert heavy snow bands further northwest toward Boston,” meteorologists Rob Shackelford and Jonathan Erdman of Weather.com wrote in a Jan. 29 online forecast.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bomb cyclone forecast; snow possible from Florida to New England