Early Northeast Snowstorm Destined to Shatter Records

Oct 28, 2011; 4:07 AM ET

From a historical perspective, the upcoming major Northeast winter storm could prove to be unprecedented in terms of its early arrival in the season and the amount of snow it will drop.

AccuWeather.com meteorologists are now confident that several inches to a foot of heavy, wet, and in some cases damaging, snow will fall over parts of the Mid-Atlantic and New England on Saturday.

Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski has specifics on the forecast for the upcoming storm.

The notion of a pre-Halloween snowstorm has our meteorologists and climatologists scrambling to put the storm into some sort of perspective as to how many records could be busted by this snowstorm.

For many cities, the snowstorm could go down as the biggest on record for the month of October:

Largest October Snow Events

–Allentown, Pa.: 2.2 inches on Oct. 31, 1925

–Baltimore, Md.: 2.5 inches on Oct. 30, 1925

–Boston, Mass.: 1.1 inches on Oct. 29, 2005

–Hartford, Conn.: 1.7 inches on Oct. 10, 1979

–Philadelphia, Pa.: 2.1 inches on Oct. 10, 1979

–New York City, N.Y. (Central Park): 0.8 inches on Oct. 30, 1925

–Washington, D.C.: 2.0 inches on Oct. 31, 1925

Allentown, Pa., and Hartford, Conn., the cities with the best shot at breaking this record, could also record their first-ever 6-inch or more snowstorm in October.

Also of note, Central Park in New York City has never recorded an inch or more of snow in October since records started being kept in 1869.

This map shows the expected accumulation on grassy surfaces. The heaviest accumulation is likely from east-central Pennsylvania to New England, where the snow will come down the hardest late in the day and during the evening and at night Saturday.

As the next list shows, this will be the first measurable October snowfall for most of these cities since 1979, except for at Central Park, where the last measurable snow was nearly 60 years ago in 1952.

Most Recent Date of Measurable Snow in October:

–Allentown, Pa.: 1.0 inches on Oct. 10, 1979

–Baltimore, Md.: 0.3 inches on Oct. 10, 1979

–Boston, Mass.: 0.2 inches on Oct. 10, 1979

–Hartford, Conn.: 1.7 inches on Oct. 10, 1979

–Philadelphia, Pa.: 2.1 inches on Oct. 10, 1979

–New York City, N.Y. (Central Park): 0.5 inches on Oct. 21, 1952

–Washington, D.C.: 0.3 inches on Oct. 10, 1979

(* Measurable means more than a trace of snow was recorded)

By Bill Deger, Meteorologist