Where's the Snow this Weekend: East Coast Report 12/6/12

The weather pattern for the Northeast through the weekend and into early next week is a very tough one to nail down. None of the longer range forecasting models seem to agree with each other, and each one also seems to change with every new run of that particular model.

In the short term though, the Northeast will see a quick return to seasonal temperatures at the very end of the workweek. This will allow the snowmakers to get back to work again, and freshen things up for the weekend. Once we hit the weekend, well, that’s when things start to get a bit uncertain. A storm, or perhaps a series of small storms will track through the region, or maybe just to the south. In any event, the track of these storms is likely to bring warmer air back in, and any precipitation that does fall will come in the unfortunate liquid form. Looking even further ahead into early next week brings more uncertainty; with the possibility of either a coastal storm bringing snow to a large portion of the Northeast, or a Great Lakes storm track that would only bring warm temperatures and a soaking rain. Unfortunately, some of the larger scale weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere indicate that the latter is more likely. 

No need to get discouraged at this point though. With such blatant forecasting model disagreement, as well as significant inconsistencies between runs of the same model, the weather for the next week is far from being set in stone. So do your snow dance, and let’s hope that the strong start to the season in the Northeast can continue!

Brian Clark is a Meteorologist for OpenSnow.com.