A cross-country Thanksgiving winter storm is forecast to pelt the northeastern United States with snow and rain, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The remnants of the storm that has caused snow to fall in Utah and Colorado is expected to intensify on Thanksgiving, moving across the Midwest, Ohio Valley, and New England throughout the day. This is why the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade will be very wet. Then over the weekend, lake-effect snow will likely cause significant snowfall around the Great Lakes. Here’s how much snow is expected to drop on Thanksgiving and beyond.
What is the weather forecast for the Thanksgiving storm?
The Thanksgiving storm will cause rainfall in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio on Wednesday night before bringing snow and rain in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey by Thanksgiving morning. By the middle of the holiday, New England will face the brunt of the storm, with areas of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine receiving 4 to 8 inches of snow by the evening.
This weather forecast is based on reports from weather analyst Ryan Hall on Wednesday in addition to AccuWeather. As the Thanksgiving storm moves past the US, Arctic air blasts will blow across the Great Lakes and cause a wildly unpredictable amount of snow to fall in the region throughout the weekend.
AccuWeather predicts that pockets of Michigan and New York could receive anywhere up to 24 to 36 inches of snow from November 28 to December 3. In particular, the cities of Buffalo, Traverse City, Jamestown, and Houghton could be hit incredibly hard by lake-effect snow.
In Ryan Hall’s report, the ECMWF model also predicts that some areas in these states, as well as northern Pennsylvania and Cleveland, Ohio, could receive anywhere from 12 to 30 inches of snow by December 3. These totals are expected to increase further the following week as more storms are fueled by the Great Lakes, with Hall saying that some places could get 60 to 70 inches of snow by December 11.
Accuweather explains that this lake-effect snow is mainly due to the average temperature of the Great Lakes being in the 50s Fahrenheit while the air blowing over them is in the 20s and lower 30s. This will create towering clouds that will produce heavy snow, strong wind gusts, and potentially thunder and lightning.
All told, we recommend that residents in the area begin stocking up at stores for Thanksgiving and the two weeks afterwards.
