A Storm's A-Coming

It’s unavoidable and inevitable – we are getting snow tomorrow.

Accuweather.com meteorologist Rob Miller said our area could see between three to six inches of snow tomorrow afternoon and night on unpaved surfaces, and about two to four inches on roadways and sidewalks.

“It looks like it’s going to be one of these events,” he said. “It will come in later tonight, early tomorrow morning as rain, but by late in the morning, early afternoon, we will see rain mixed with and changed over to snow.”

Miller said there is a possibility of heavy snow in the afternoon and evening hours.

“For the most part, the worst will be over by 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., and certainly by 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., everything will be gone and out of the area,” he said.

The atmosphere should cool enough to provide snow he said. Falling temperatures will plague Saturday afternoon.

“Maybe after an hour we will see roads covered and slushy,” he said. “It could be heavy at times, with slippery conditions out there.”

Miller warned of the chance of falling trees and downed power lines due to the storm. Power outages are also possible in the region.

A snowstorm in October is not totally unheard of, but it is on the early side of things.

“You have just the right ingredients coming together: warm ocean waters help feed the storm system along the coast and you have warm air funneling in from the Great Lakes,” he said. “The system will rapidly intensify off the coastline of the DelMarVa peninsula, with cold air funneling in. The storm will strengthen quickly.”

He said vertical velocity – the rising and sinking motion of air – will be high, which will cause precipitation rates to increase tomorrow.

There may be a couple thunderstorms with the snow as well.

“You could get a couple rumbles of thunder. It is the type of system to do that,” he said.

Steve at in Ambler,  said they have a good stock on shovels, scrapers and rock salt.

He said that not much had been sold as of Friday afternoon but they expected more people to come in later Friday or Saturday.