Another storm? What we know, what we don’t

WASHINGTON — I can’t believe I’m writing about yet another possible storm — in the D.C. area — at the end of March. However, since social media is abuzz, it’s warranted.

At this time, we’re watching a potential storm for Tuesday into early Wednesday morning time frame (next week). If you lived in the D.C. region this winter, you know just how difficult it was to forecast some of these many storms even a day or two out.

That being said, there are more questions than answers. But here is what we know so far:

  1. Cold air will be in place in the Mid-Atlantic starting early next week as a strong area of high pressure spills cold air down from the high altitudes of Canada.
  2. This low will track northward (either out to sea or hugging the coast).

What we don’t know:

  1. Timing. Some models bring precipitation in as early as Tuesday morning. This could start as snow in spots but to get accumulating snow during the day, at the end of March, is difficult. Especially when we are coming out of a warm string of days.

    The high sun angle in March, even with clouds, has a big impact on any significant snow totals. If it falls hard and fast enough it could accumulate in spots. But that factor will need to be analyzed.

  2. Track. Obviously we’ll have to watch the track of this low. Models are all over the place and obviously we know how models have done this winter with snow storms.

I have seen outlier models that predict a massive snow storm and, then again, I’ve seen some models predict squat. Try to ignore the social media aspect and the urge for instant gratification for information. I want it too because I’d rather not have another snow storm, but weather just doesn’t work that way.

The information just isn’t there at this time, but once we figure it out — we’ll let you know!

Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook. You can also follow Lauryn Ricketts on Facebook.

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