BOSTON — After a mild winter, a weekend storm is bearing down on the Northeast just as residents are looking forward to Sunday’s official start of spring.
Over 6 inches of accumulation is possible, mostly in New England and along coastal parts of the region. New York and Philadelphia should at least get a few inches, forecasters say.
“I was thinking that winter was over, but I have learned there is always a surprise around the corner,” said Pete Kusinski, a 32-year-old Cambridge resident. “If it’s Monday, it’s really going to screw up the commute. But if it’s over the weekend, it’s less of a big deal.”
The snow should start Sunday morning in mid-Atlantic cities like Washington, D.C, Philadelphia and New York, but higher temperatures should help mitigate snow accumulations, said Thomas Kines, a Pennsylvania-based meteorologist for AccuWeather.
“We’re most concerned with New England with this storm,” Kines said. “I don’t think there will be many problems in the D.C./Baltimore area. New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia is a little bit iffier.”
New England, in contrast, won’t see the brunt of the inclement weather until Sunday night, when temperatures drop.
And the snow could stick around through Monday morning in New England, possibly creating a messy commute and prompting school cancellations, says Frank Nocera, a Massachusetts-based meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
“There’s still a lot of uncertainty, still a lot of moving parts,” he said. “We’re two-plus days out, so the storm really hasn’t formed yet.”
This winter has been relatively tame for the Northeast.
Washington, New York, Philadelphia and other mid-Atlantic cities have seen higher-than-average snowfall, but temperatures have been milder than usual, meaning the snow hasn’t really stuck around very long, Kines said
“March is a very fickle month,” Kines said. “This kind of stuff happens. We’ll get these warm spells and then people will think spring is here and then Mother Nature says, ‘Not so fast.’”