New York faces potential ‘high-impact winter storm’ as alerts expand throughout interior Northeast

NEW YORK – Winter weather alerts have been issued from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast as the region gets set to be blasted by a powerful winter storm packing snow, heavy rain and strong winds just as millions of people prepare to travel ahead of the busy Thanksgiving holiday.

While Thanksgiving travel will peak next week, some people have decided to hit the roads and pack airports early hoping to beat the holiday rush. That’s because AAA said a potentially record-breaking 80 million people are expected to travel more than 50 miles from home this year.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it, too, was preparing for what could be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period on record and offered tips for passengers to help make traveling through airports as easy and stress-free as possible.

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According to the FOX Forecast Center, a new area of low pressure has started to form across the Great Lakes region and will rapidly develop through Thursday. This follows another powerful storm that brought rain and snow to portions of the Upper Midwest earlier this week.

As the storm center drifts into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast at the end of this week, strong winds are expected to blow in cold air, supporting snow from parts of the Great Lakes region to the Ohio Valley, the northern mid-Atlantic and interior Northeast.

Forecast snow totals are trending up for upstate New York and the higher terrain in Pennsylvania, according to the FOX Forecast Center. Those hoping to get out of metro areas could face some tough driving conditions along Interstate 88 and Interstate 81.

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Because of the incoming storm, several winter weather alerts have been issued from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, including Winter Storm Watches for portions of West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York state.

A Winter Storm Warning has been issued for the higher elevations in West Virginia, and Winter Weather Advisories stretch from portions of Tennessee and Kentucky to upstate New York.

The National Weather Service office in Binghamton, New York, warned of a potential “high-impact winter storm” in its forecast discussion Wednesday afternoon.

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The highest snow totals are expected to fall in the higher elevations in West Virginia, where more than a foot of snow could fall in some spots. Computer forecast models are also showing snow in Pennsylvania and New York, where some spots could see 5-8 inches of snow with some higher amounts locally.

“I did local weather in West Virginia for a while,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Ari Sarsalari said. “Let me tell you. These mountains up here, they pile up the snow, especially when the wind is out of the northwest.”

He said one side of the mountains can receive feet of snow while just on the other side there can be little to no snow. There could even be lake-effect snow if the conditions are just right.

“You can see where the heaviest snow totals are up there along the spine of the Appalachians,” he continued. “A lot of the really decent accumulating snow, guys, I think, is going to be mostly in the high terrain.”

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Forecast rain totals have also been trending higher, and the FOX Forecast Center now expects 2-3 inches of rain for parts of the Hudson River Valley in New York, as well as in portions of Connecticut and Massachusetts in New England.

“Given the drought, the rain along the (Interstate) 95 corridor is significant,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Stephen Morgan said. “Will we see more than an inch in New York City? I think there’s a pretty healthy shot over the next few days. Does it fall in one day? Maybe not. Our better shot might come Thursday into Friday.”

In addition to the precipitation helping to ease some of the record-breaking drought conditions, it’s also expected to help the wildfire threat that has been playing the region.