Weather News

Dangerous winter storm affecting America

Ben Domensino, Thursday January 4, 2018 - 12:54 AEDT

Residents in New York City are bracing for the arrival of a bitter winter storm that has already covered beaches in snow along America's southeast coast.

A stray pool of cold air that has broken away from the Arctic region has caused temperatures to plummet across central and eastern parts of North America this week.

Beaches in South Carolina were turned white as the frigid air brought snow to sea level on Wednesday, while there were also reports of snow falling in the typically sunny state of Florida.

A low pressure system that was located to the east of the Carolinas on Wednesday will move towards the northeast during the next 24 hours, roughly parallel to the coast, while intensifying.

The low pressure system is expected to deepen rapidly enough for it to undergo a process called bombogenesis, which is sometimes referred to as a 'bombing low' or 'bombing cyclone' in colloquial terms. Bombogenesis occurs when the central pressure of the low drops by at least 24 hectopascals in 24 hours.

The rapidly deepening low will help spread dangerously cold weather across the America's eastern and northeastern states and into southeastern Canada during Thursday and Friday.

While cold weather like this is not uncommon in America and Canada during winter, this pool of Arctic air will be slow moving, causing cause bleak conditions to persist in multiple states for a number of days.

The temperature in New York City is forecast to remain between -2 and -15 degrees Celsius between now and Sunday night. This is well below the city's average temperature range of -3 to 3 degrees Celsius at this time of year.

A Winter Storm Warning has been issued for the New York City, America's most populated centre, and many other regions in America's northeast, mainly due to dangers associated with snow and strong winds.

A plethora of other warnings have also been issued by America's National Weather Service between southern Texas and Maine, an area covering roughly 3,500 kilometres.

Environment Canada had also issued numerous warnings across the country's south and southeast on Wednesday in response to the outbreak of cold weather.

Visit http://www.weather.gov/ and https://weather.gc.ca/ for the latest official advisories in North America and Canada.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2018

Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search

Weather News

» all stories

Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro surf forecast

07:00 AEST After an emotional mid-year cut at the Margaret River Pro surf competition in Western Australia last week, surfers that fell below the cut line, along with up-and-coming talent, will be battling it out on the Gold Coast from this weekend onwards. The first stop on the Challenger Series (the lesser format of the Championship Tour) will take place along the Gold Coast’s premier surf point breaks, starting this morning and running to Saturday May 4th.