New York's Snow Covered Weekend Fades Away as Forecast Shifts

(Bloomberg) -- Chances for another snowy weekend in New York and Washington have melted away, with the national forecast now calling for early Spring-type rain.

A potential storm isn't coming together the right way to carry through on the snow threat meteorologists had feared earlier for those cities and Boston, said Tony Fracasso, a forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. However, parts of the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania could still pick up a few inches of snow.

“I don't foresee any accumulation,” said Rob Carolan, owner of Hometown Forecast Services Inc. in Nashua, New Hampshire, who provides forecasts for Bloomberg radio. “It will be more decorative in nature; it will look pretty but it doesn't cause any harm.”

After a lackluster start, winter pounded the U.S. East Coast in March dropping snow by the foot in many places from Maryland to Maine, flooding coastal areas and leaving more than 2 million customers without power at its worst. The winter weather kept coming as New York's Central Park picked up 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) of snow on Monday, putting the month in eighth place among the top 10 snowiest Aprils in records going back to 1869, according to the National Weather Service.

On the other side of the U.S., nature is making good on its threat to bring heavy, flooding rains to northern California. Flood watches, warnings and advisories blanket much of the west from California to Idaho north to Washington state.

From three to seven inches of rain is possible in the mountains of northern California with about half that in the valleys, the weather service said. Snow that fell during March could melt in the deluge sending rivers and streams out of their banks.

The heaviest amounts are forecast to fall from Friday to Sunday and areas scarred by wildfires last fall will be susceptible to mudslides.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Debarati Roy, Reg Gale

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