New York City residents should prepare for an arctic cold front bringing gusty winds, followed by several opportunities for light snow in the coming days, according to AccuWeather forecasts.
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Chad Merrill told the Advance/SILive.com that an arctic cold front will move through the area on Thursday, bringing “a brief period of some gusty winds” that could surpass 40 miles per hour.
“The front coming in Thursday has the best opportunity to produce those gusts in excess of 40 miles per hour,” Merrill said.
The high winds could potentially impact travel on Staten Island’s bridges, which sometimes implement restrictions during windy conditions.
Following Thursday’s front, Staten Islanders might see their first snowflakes of the season, though any snowfall is not expected to stick around for long.
“There could be a few flurries that make it in to the New York area very early on Saturday, but there wouldn’t be any snow accumulation with it,” Merrill explained. “It would be just a couple of flurries here and there overnight Friday into early Saturday morning.”
The greatest chance for accumulating snow comes early next week, according to the meteorologist.
“Early next week, there is some opportunity, once we get into (Dec.) 9, 10 and 11, for at least a couple of snow showers to make it into the New York City area with these cold fronts,” Merrill said.
While individual snow events next week may be light, they could add up to measurable accumulation, according to the meteorologist.
In general, what we’re looking at is the potential by late next week for perhaps about a half an inch to an inch of snow, and that would be kind of collective from these couple of systems coming through,” Merrill noted. “The event early next week has the best opportunity to produce some accumulation.”
The combination of cold temperatures and precipitation could create hazardous travel conditions on Staten Island roads early next week.
“Early next week, there’s a better opportunity for a couple of slippery spots between Monday afternoon and Thursday,” Merrill warned. “Due to the cold nature of the air coming in, there could be some issues with some of the pavement being a little bit slippery.”
While Thursday’s front may produce a few flurries on Staten Island, Merrill said the “more meaningful snow showers would be back off to the west” toward Albany, which would “have a better chance for snow causing slippery travel.”
The weather pattern bringing these cold fronts and snow chances is being driven by what meteorologists call an active “polar jet stream,” which will continue to “drive cold air into the east” in the coming days, according to Merrill.