If you haven't noticed, winter is back, and it's bringing with it the chance of snow for the next few days across  the area. Many areas picked up a moderate snowfall yesterday (Friday), with a boundary which moved southwest to northeast through the region. Some areas in Connecticut actually received over 10 inches of new snowfall accumulation! The forecast continues on a snowy track for the next few days. First, Saturday, where we will see a coastal storm develop off the New Jersey coast. A band of moderate snow is expected to develop over Southern New Jersey and move north-northeast through Saturday afternoon and evening. It's northward extent remains somewhat in question. Featured image: NAM forecast model showing the heavy bands of snow across the aforementioned areas Saturday afternoon and evening.

As a result, we have issued Winter Storm Advisories (click) for the south and east portions of our area, and Snow Bulletins(click) for the central portions of our area including the New York City Metro area. We're expecting 3-6 inches of snow across the advisory area, and 1-3 inches of snow across the Snow Bulletin area. The forecast remains highly uncertain, though, so we suggest you stay with us for more information Saturday morning. There is the potential for things to shift in either direction (snowier or drier), as the forecast models have been struggling with handling the system. We've included our forecast storm total snowfall map to the right--check it out. Featured image (left): Storm Total Snowfall forecast from New York Metro Weather. Image will update automatically as new forecasts are issued.

Finally, model guidance is keying in on the development of a potentially more significant system Tuesday and Wednesday, where a coastal storm will develop off the Carolina coast and move northeast..providing our area with moderate to heavy snow. There are still plenty of uncertainties, but the potential is definitely increasing at this time. Stay tuned over the next few days for more information regarding this system as well.

Need more? See New York Metro Weather's Long Range Forecast for the weekend, or view our Technical Forecast Discussion for the more serious weather enthusiasts. For up to the minute details on forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Article by John Homenuk. 2:39am January 08th, 2011.