Hazardous Weather Outlook Issued In The Hudson Valley Friday

The National Weather Service issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook at 5:10 p.m. Friday for Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties, as well as southern Connecticut and northeast New Jersey. It's for Saturday through Thursday, and while the NWS wants people to be aware, it is also hedging its bets:

A coastal storm next week could potentially produce strong winds, heavy precipitation in the form of rain and snow, and coastal flooding Tuesday through Wednesday night. The levels of impact and timing remain highly uncertain at this time.

There's good reason. The best computer models disagree about the paths and strengths of the developing storm systems, one from the Midwest and one off the East Coast, according to Hudson Valley Weather.

"Now… what we CAN do, is say that the upcoming pattern favors storm development between Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon of next week," write Alex Marra and Bill Potter, "… but like we say… there’s a LONG way to go."

The jet stream during the first part of next week may progress enough to allow the Midwest storm to push farther to the north and east and remain the stronger of the two storms for a longer period, said Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist. "This stronger, longer Midwest storm scenario may allow milder air to push farther to the north and east and eventually result in more rain or little accumulation from a slushy rain/wet snow mix for more places along the coast, when compared to the March 12-13 nor'easter."

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Map via AccuWeather.com