All Eyes on What Could Become a Monster Storm

WASHINGTON —  From the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast corridor, meteorologists were watching Friday for the formation of what could be the biggest snowstorm to hit the East Coast in decades, the National Weather Service said.

Forecasters were keeping an eye on two powerful weather systems that potentially could produce a major snowstorm beginning Sunday if they converge, said National Weather Service spokesman Curtis Carey.

“Meteorologists say it’s unusual and it’s not like anything they’ve seen in 50 years,” Carey said in an interview.

A low-pressure system moving up from the Gulf of Mexico and “a cold area” coming down from Canada could combine in the Carolinas and create a severe snowstorm, Carey said.

“If these two systems do meet, you could see potentially a foot of snow from Washington, D.C., north to New York.

“The real question right now is when those systems meet and where,” he said. “Meteorologists tonight are scratching their heads and watching this, all curious to see how it’s going to come out.”

The behavior of a front moving across southeastern Canada is making current conditions particularly unusual. Ordinarily, fronts tend to move west to east, but this front is moving westward and is expected to eventually turn back east, said National Weather Service meteorologist Bruce Terry.

The directional pattern of that Canadian front, the bitter cold temperatures in Maine and the warm, moist unstable air from the Gulf Coast are all variables that could mix to fuel a ferocious, slow-moving storm, Terry said.