A nor’easter is forecast to bring an April onslaught of snow, rain, high winds and coastal flooding to the Northeastern United States this week, the National Weather Service said.
Rain will lash areas of New York, Southern Connecticut and Northern New Jersey starting on Tuesday. Heavy, wet snow is expected to blanket mainly parts of inland New England starting on Wednesday before tapering off into a light dusting on Friday, the weather prediction center said.
“The biggest impact we are worried about from this storm is the heavy, wet nature of the snowfall” in northern New England, said Donald Dumont, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. “All of New England is going to get it, but probably more rain in southern New England.”
Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey could all, to varying degrees, feel the brunt of the stormy weather.
Maine and New Hampshire are thickly forested with pine trees that can bend and snap in powerful winds or under the weight of heavy snow, possibly leading to power outages. Snowfall totals could range from 2 to 3 inches along the coast to up to two feet in the White Mountains in Maine and New Hampshire, Mr. Dumont said.
‘We expect things to go downhill Wednesday night and through Thursday,” he said.
The storm is forecast to stall in the Gulf of Maine and linger into Friday.
In New York, Southern Connecticut and Northern New Jersey, the storm will bring two to three inches of rain from Tuesday night through Wednesday, before easing on Thursday, said James Connolly, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Upton, N.Y.
Gale-force winds, which range from about 39 miles per hour to 54 m.p.h., and periods of rain and snow will sweep through western Massachusetts, northwestern Connecticut, eastern New York and southern Vermont from Tuesday through Thursday, the Weather Service said. Higher terrain is likely to absorb the heaviest snowfall, it said.