Winter formally arrives at 4:21 a.m. on Saturday, and Mom Nature just isn’t losing any time.
We’re getting a sturdy inflow of frigid arctic air that’s going to take temperatures approach down and ramp up a biting northwest wind. Plus, Central Park might see its first measurable snowfall of the season.
The final time Central Park had measurable snow on the Winter Solstice was over 15 years in the past in 2008. It wasn’t a lot, solely 0.2 inches, however we could possibly be the same dusting of snow this yr. It’ll be festive, however nothing like the primary day of Winter in 1959, when Central Park recorded greater than 10 inches of snow.
A fast-moving clipper system comes by the tri-state in a single day Friday into Saturday. There’s not a ton of moisture with this method, so nobody is getting Earth-shattering snow totals, however we’ll see totals on the order of 1 to three inches, particularly a bit additional inland the place temperatures will spend extra time under freezing.
For the areas nearer to the coasts, temperatures can be simply hitting freezing, if not staying barely above, because the clipper strikes by. This can make it more durable for the snow to stay and accumulate.
As such, we count on snow totals to stay beneath an inch in these areas.
Something that does stick can be sticking round for a bit — as a result of as soon as we fall under freezing, we battle to get again above it for a few days.
Coming behind Saturday morning’s clipper is a blast of air straight from Canada. That’ll knock temperatures down by the afternoon on Saturday, leaving us with air temperatures within the teenagers by Sunday morning.
But it surely’s not simply the chilly, dry, arctic air alone we’ll be coping with, it’s the gusty northwest winds as properly.
The winds ramp up on Saturday, gusting round 25-35 mph. That’s sufficient to maintain temperatures feeling just like the 20s and teenagers all day.
Winds ease only a hair heading into Sunday morning, nevertheless it doesn’t take a lot to make the brutal chilly even worse. Sunday morning’s temperatures within the metropolis will get right down to round 18 levels; issue within the wind chills and also you’ve bought a single-digit really feel. Elements of the Hudson Valley and New Jersey might even expertise sub-zero wind chills.
As dangerous as Sunday morning will really feel, it’s nonetheless not the place our temperatures backside out. That comes Monday morning, when Central Park is anticipated to drop down to fifteen levels. To this point in 2024, absolutely the coldest temperature we’ve seen at Central Park has been 17 levels, all the best way again in January. So our coldest morning of the whole yr can be on Monday.
Past Monday’s deep freeze, temperatures steadily tick again up. Highs climb again into the 40s by the top of subsequent week, however earlier than one other low-pressure system comes our approach on Christmas Eve.
We’ll need to keep watch over timing and temperatures, but when every thing aligns, components of our space could possibly be in for one more dusting of snow. And simply in time for the vacations.
