Bomb cyclone storm to slam East coast with more snow

All right, let's continue on here on Live Now from Fox and bring into the conversation Fox weather meteorologist Jane Menard. Jane, thank you so much for joining us here on Live Now from Fox. What can you tell us about how frigid it is in the southeastern and what we should expect this weekend? Oh, let me tell you, I mean, it's cold now and it's dangerously cold, especially for the hundreds of thousands of folks that are still without power across parts of northern Louisiana, Mississippi up into Tennessee. So that's still a growing concern as we head into this weekend. But of course, as the the chatter goes right with one storm exiting, here comes the next. And I've got Wilmington, North Carolina up here because we are looking at a nor'easter that is expected to develop as we head into this weekend. There are a couple of questions that we still need to iron out the details to before we give a full and complete answer to how this plays out. But we're locking in the forecast for spots like North Carolina, eastern North Carolina, Wilmington, where yes, we do in fact have snow on the way. So what's going on? Well, this extreme cold is set to move into the weekend and it's going as far south as the Sunshine State. Come Sunday morning, we're talking record low temperatures as far south as Miami-Dade County and could be challenging records down there from the early 1900s. We're talking below 32 degrees wind chills that could be in the single digits in the teens across the Sunshine State. So with a cold air mass like that locked into the eastern seaboard, well, we have this big trough. And with this trough that's going to spread that cold air south, this upper level low transfers down to the surface. That off the Now it's going to develop quickly. It is going to strengthen quickly. And because we have higher confidence in winter impacts from the eastern Carolinas up into Virginia, it has a lot to do with just proximity and also to knowing the fact that yes, at that point in time, models have a very good handle on that. This storm is going to happen with that storm closer to the coast. Of course, that's something that we're going to be watching as we look downstream. The farther away this low tracks as it goes up to the northeast from New England, the lower the impacts will be. But we still don't know exactly if the storm is going to track in that direction. Trends have been in that direction that you can see the confluence of our models and pretty high agreement that we have this powerful coastal low developing off the Carolinas. So that's what into eastern Virginia, big wave and wind impacts across parts of the outer banks into the Delmarva. But as we track this area of low pressure up to the north, this benchmark, and if you live in the northeast, you've heard us talk about this before the 40 70 line where that cross section meets a storm of this magnitude that passes over that blue dot is typically what is historic in terms of the most impactful snow events for the I-95. So if we cut in, cut west of that benchmark, that's usually when things transition to rain and then we get skunked, right? And then it always becomes the big bust potential. But there is a bus potential here if the track of this low cuts east of that benchmark and models have been trending in that direction. So that would end up being, I think, for so many millions of people who are still digging out from this weekend's past winter storm. This would be the best case scenario. I think just for limiting the overall impacts doesn't mean we wouldn't see snow doesn't mean that we wouldn't see wind. But I think that, you know, blockbuster snow, that window is starting to dwindle for our major cities on the I-95 that we're going to keep our eyes on eastern New England, coastal mass, where we could still get, we could still sneak in there, perhaps a decently plowable snow and some pretty powerful wind. But there it is. Our first snow forecast for this weekend nor'easter with the bullseye in the Carolinas, the proximity of that area of low pressure, the quicker it develops, the stronger it becomes. We're talking some pretty hefty snow bands for Raleigh, perhaps over to the Outer Banks, upwards of eight to 12 inches Saturday through Sunday. This is a quick mover. So by Monday, this is going to be up and out of here, but still will leave its mark for the eastern seaboard. And Jane, it's so fascinating to look at some of these models and obviously has come so far along the technology for this, but it's interesting. You look at that 4070 mark and if it goes obviously a wayward from there, we might not get as much snow. It's going to take some time to kind of narrow in the focus on if it does hit that bullseye. Why does it take so long? Why is it kind of a little bit all over the board until then? Well, you know, it's interesting. So, you know, models, they really don't start ingesting real time observations until about two, sometimes three days out from when the event is expected to happen. So here we sit here Wednesday night expecting to see this storm develop late Saturday. So we're still a good three, four days away from the onset of this storm. And so right now models are quite literally picking a point randomly and running with it. And so there's some credence to it, but it's really once we start ingesting that real time observation data, which by the way, comes from like airplanes and drops on from the national weather service. Once we get those real time readings from the atmosphere for models to start to latch on to and do some real time forecasting, that doesn't happen until about three days out, which is why I always say, you know, trust us here at Fox weather with your Fox weather app, but really make sure you're zeroing in on that three day forecast. Cause that's where we have the highest confidence uncertainty. Uh, and then it'll be interesting because even with this snow forecast and the, the benchmark, um, I'll be perfectly honest with you as a meteorologist, you know, sometimes it's not until the event has started. We call this now casting, right? And this is something that we're going to be doing all weekend long here. We have extended team coverage to get you through this weekend. I'll be on in the afternoons and I'm going to be looking at that area of low pressures. It begins to pull up the coast. I know where that benchmark is. I'm going to pull it up and I'm going to, I'm going to be looking to see like, okay, how close are we to the benchmark? Uh, and as it continues to work its way through, you know, are, are we looking at a, at a near miss east or could we get close enough to spread more of that snow closer to the coast? So it's too close for comfort, right? I think for a lot of folks are like, wait, we want to know right now. Believe me, I want to tell you right now, but for the Carolinas preparations need to begin because that is the most locked in feature of this forecast. We'll see exactly how much snow they get in the Northeast. Is this determined over the next several days with that forecast? All right, Jane, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Do great work over there at Fox weather. Thank you. All of you and your colleagues do. I will talk again very soon. We'll talk soon. We'll be here. All right. Thank you so much.