'Snow Hurricane' Hits East Coast with Blizzard, Rain, High Winds

Feb. 25, 2010 — -- No! Please! Enough already! This winter stinks. We need a break!

The eastern United States, already having a rough winter after a string of mild ones, has been warned to be ready for another storm -- and just where it will have the most effect is proving maddeningly difficult for forecasters to predict.

A low-pressure system is slowly heading up the East Coast, mixing with another from the west. It is right on a boundary line for meteorologists. On one side is moist but relatively mild air from the Atlantic. On the other is colder air from the northwest.

The boundary line naturally wanders. A shift of just a few miles could determine whether you get flooding rains -- or a foot or more of snow. And the line is not far from Interstate 95, the major highway that runs along the east coast from Maine to Florida, passing through Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

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"My goodness! This is an incredibly complex system," said John Koch, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Bohemia, N.Y. "This is not in the official forecast, but I could see a scenario where people just west of New York get a foot and a half of snow, and Greenwich, Conn. -- just five to seven miles away -- could get an inch. It's that close."

For inland areas, heavy snow was all but guaranteed. The forecast for Philadelphia, as of Thursday morning, was for 8-12 inches of snow through Friday. AccuWeather, the private forecasting service, posted a map with the words "paralyzing blizzard" over most of New York state, northern Pennsylvania and northern New England.

"It's going to be a high-impact event that affects the entire Northeast region," said Koch. "Even areas that don't receive a lot of snow are going to receive one to two inches of rain.

"It's not going to be business as usual," he said.

But as for major coastal cities -- New York in particular -- it was still not clear what would likely happen. The government forecast for the New York area was for 7-12 inches of snow on Thursday and into the evening. But there could still be surprises, depending on that boundary line.

"The slightest change in track will have drastic consequences on the forecast," said a weather service statement.

A winter-weather message from the weather service said, "There remains a good deal of uncertainty as to how far west warm air off the Atlantic will get with this next system. This will be a critical factor in determining where the rain snow line sets up. At this time, New York City and points north and west will have the best chance to see significant snowfall. This, though, can very easily change based on the final storm track."