Nor'easter brings first seasonal snow and scattered tornadoes to the Northeast

A nor'easter moving up the East Coast delivered the first measurable snowfall of the season to several interior Northeast locations, including Albany, Binghamton, Scranton and Syracuse, with up to 12 inches of heavy, wet snow reported between Albany and Syracuse late Thursday night. Rain continued across much of the I-95 corridor, while snow persisted in the interior Northeast and the Great Lakes snowbelts.

The storm also generated severe weather in parts of the region on Thursday afternoon. The National Weather Service recorded damaging winds, large hail and a tornado near Wilmington, Delaware, and a second tornado was reported in Burlington County, New Jersey. A damage survey scheduled for Friday will assess the New Jersey event.

Forecasts call for rain and lingering winds in southern New England, the New York City metro area and New Jersey on Friday, with wet snow remaining over hills and mountains from New England to eastern Pennsylvania. Lake-effect rain and snow showers are expected to continue across the western Great Lakes, and additional snow chances exist in the Appalachians and parts of the Ohio Valley.

Additional wet snow through Saturday is most likely in the Green and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, the Adirondacks and Catskills of upstate New York, and the Appalachians from West Virginia to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Similar conditions may affect Great Lakes snowbelt areas as far south as northern Indiana, northeast Ohio and southwest New York.

The system is also pulling colder air southward, bringing the first seasonal freezes to the Carolinas, northern and central Georgia, and northern and central Alabama, with frost and freeze alerts issued for parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and northern Georgia through Saturday morning. Daytime highs are expected to remain in the 40s across much of the Midwest and Northeast, and in the 50s across the Carolinas and Tennessee Valley through the weekend.

Meteorologist Rob Shackelford explained that the nor'easter’s low-pressure center is relatively weak, limiting the potential for high impacts such as widespread flash flooding or significant coastal flooding, which are projected to be minor at high tide.