Nor'easter Now Expected To Bring Snow To The Hudson Valley

HUDSON VALLEY, NY – A nor'easter bearing down on New York and New England just might bring snow to the Hudson Valley, say forecasters who had previously predicted the abnormally warm temperatures would mean just drenching rain. The storm is now expected to start after 5 p.m. Thursday, mixing with snow during the night and continuing to fall until 2 a.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service said.

Several weather features are coming together so it's a complicated forecast, says Hudson Valley Weather: "we continue to track a surface storm system that will move from the Chicago area and redevelop south of NYC and Long Island. At the same time, an upper level low pressure system will intensify and track from Detroit to areas off the Mid Atlantic coast ... the big question we’re going to focus on today: “Can we get the Upper Level Low Pressure to track just to our south, and cool the air enough in the valley, to turn the rain over to snow?”

"As the storm moves into the Northeastern states, it will get another boost in strength as it reorganizes off the coast of southern New England during Thursday night and Friday. At this point, the storm may become a formidable nor'easter," said Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist. "This is likely to become the strongest storm since the bomb cyclone from early January. "

Dutchess and Ulster counties are under a Hazardous Weather Outlook.

A moderate to heavy precipitation event is possible Thursday night into Friday night as a storm system impacts the region. There is still much uncertainty as to precipitation amounts and types.

At this time, it appears that higher elevations across southern Greens, Taconics, Berkshires and Litchfield Hills may have the greatest chances of moderate snowfall accumulations. In addition, strong winds could also occur.

Possible impacts could be scattered power outages from a combination of wind and snow, and/or urban and small stream flooding from runoff from heavy rain.

Orange and Putnam counties are under a different one.

There is a low probability for 6 inches or more of snow Friday, mainly across the higher elevations.

A hazardous weather outlook has also been issued for New York City: little if any snow accumulation is expected, though it could make roads slick.