Weather Next Week Potentially Interesting

Queens Blvd. during the Blizzard of 2010.

The "B" word is being kicked around again as a possibility for next week. B as in Blizzardo. Yes, that's right. It is still a loooong way off meteorologically-speaking, and the chances that Blizzard predictions made this far in advance actually come to pass are rather slim. And the chance that we can actually get not one, but two blizzards in one winter is almost unheard of! But, I thought I'd pass along what I've been hearing, anyway, so at least you all have enough time to raid Natural and get that checkout line stretching all the way to Kew Gardens.

What do you need for a blizzard to occur? The stars have to align, so to speak, in a rare confluence of events - you need a blocking, arctic high pressure system to our north (predicted for next week), and then you need a storm to ride up along the coast (also predicted for next week). The jury is still out, however, on the following: will the storm riding up the coast bump into the arctic air mass over us and then bounce out to sea, missing us entirely or just giving us a dusting? Or does the arctic air give just enough and allow the storm to rapidly intensify and explode into a blizzard right to the south of Long Island, like what happened Christmas weekend. We shall see...

As for tonight's storm, the latest has a spread from 4 to 6 inches for us.