Bitter Arctic Blast Coming To East, Bringing Snowstorms

Absent for the entire winter, the polar vortex is blasting in with bitter Arctic cold across the eastern U.S. for Mother’s Day weekend, and setting the stage for a possible historic May snowstorm in the Northeast.

The National Weather Service’s (NWS) Weather Prediction Center (WPC) said that an “unusual weather pattern evolving across North America,” including an “unusually cold” air mass from eastern Canada, is making a late-season snowstorm “increasingly likely” for the interior Northeast.

“This is going to be a record-breaking weekend,” Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean said Thursday on “Fox & Friends.”

The cold air mass will cause rain from a system moving out of the Tennessee Valley to change to wet snow that could be heavy over the central Appalachians Friday.

The storm system then intensifies further as it skirts the New England coast, according to the WPC.

“The potential for heavy snow over portions of the higher terrain of northern New England Friday into Saturday is increasing,” the WPC said. “May daily snowfall records may be shattered, with several inches of snow possible.”

Forecasters said that across the higher terrain of western and northern Maine, isolated snowfall could approach a foot, which would “shatter” May daily snowfall records.

The potential for heavy snow over portions of the higher terrain of northern New England Friday into Saturday is increasing. May daily snowfall records may be shattered, with several inches of snow possible. Residents of northern New England should monitor the latest forecast. pic.twitter.com/EUjTF6FxcW

— NWS WPC (@NWSWPC) May 7, 2020

“Although daily snow in May across New England is not extremely rare, daily snowfall records for the month are possible,” the WPC said.

Even higher elevations in the Mid-Atlantic could see snow. The NWS Baltimore/Washington D.C. forecast office said that a storm system on Friday ushering in cold air may lead to snow in higher elevations of northwestern Virginia, Western Maryland, and West Virginia.

“As colder air rushes in behind the front Friday evening, there will be a transition from rain to snow showers along the Allegheny Front with minor snow accumulations likely,” forecasters said. “Further east, not expecting accumulating snow, however, some wet flakes mixing in remains a possibility along and west of the Blue Ridge.”

Some snowflakes could reach areas closer to Washington, D.C., early Saturday morning. But the chance of snow in the district is quite low, according to FOX5, which notes that the nation’s capital has never seen measurable snow in May, as far back as the 1880s.

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