A blizzard watch has been posted for Long Island, New York City and coastal portions of northeastern New Jersey and remains in effect from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon.
Heavy snow, accompanied by strong and potentially damaging winds may produce extremely poor visibilities, leading to whiteout conditions and making travel very dangerous, the National Weather Service said in a statement issued early this morning. Secondary and tertiary roads may become impassable.
Strong winds of 25 to 35 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph, may down power lines and tree limbs.
Snow accumulations of 8 to 12 inches are forecast.
A low pressure system moving across the the midwest will combine with another low that will develop over the deep south by Friday morning and track slowly northeast to the southeast of Long Island into Sunday, according to the National Weather Service forecast. The low will pass just south of the 40/70 benchmark Saturday night, according to the forecast.
Forecasters say there will be enough cold air in place due to a high pressure system from the north to make precipitation fall as all snow, except possibly on the East End and southwestern Suffolk County Saturday evening.
Very strong winds of 45-60 kts (50 to 60 mph) are forecast from areas around Long Island Sound and most of northeast New Jersey, from late Friday night into Saturday evening, the weather service said.
