Looks like winter is coming after all. After a rather warm December, weather models of all kinds are predicting a massive snowstorm on the US East Coast this Friday. The map above shows “this week’s snowfall potential, based on storms under similar conditions.”
Since early Saturday, nearly every single run of every major model has shown the potential for a foot or two of snowfall on a track to hit somewhere between Northern Virginia and Boston. What’s amazing—perhaps even more so than the impressive potential snow totals—is that all the major weather models are already locked in so far in advance. Simply put: There’s definitely a big storm coming, it’s just the details that are still being worked out.
Predictably, meteorologist message boards have erupted in squeals of giddy joy, ogling the storm’s potential. One leading meteorologist on Twitter has already dubbed the storm a “blockbuster blizzard for the ages.” The person who literally wrote the textbook on major Northeast winter storms, Paul Kocin, wrote on Tuesday that this week’s storm is “textbook.” Another meteorologist called the storm’s predicted evolution “perfection.”
Yes, meteorologists are strange. They are celebrating the fact that models are converging to make predictions more accurate, and a big weather event, which is their bread and butter. The rest of us have to consider the potential misery of being stuck at home with bored kids and how “essential” we are to our workplaces. Read more about the expected event at Slate. BRB, going to get bread and toilet paper.
(Image credit: St. Louis University)