A major storm sweeping the U.S. is expected to bring heavy rain, snow to the East Coast this weekend

NEW YORK –

A winter weather system moving through the U.S. is expected to wallop the East Coast this weekend with a mix of snow and freezing rain from the southern Appalachians to the Northeast — although it’s too early to say exactly which areas will get what kind of precipitation and how much.

Details on the storm’s path should firm up this week as the Pacific system moves through Colorado and New Mexico on Thursday and into Texas and the Southeast before moving up the East Coast, said Tony Fracasso, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

“It’s still a few days away, so we’ll have to hash out the storm track — where the precipitation falls, and how long the cold air can stay,” he said Wednesday.

Major U.S. cities accustomed to white winters — such as Boston, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia — didn’t receive much snow last year due to a lack of cold air.

The National Weather Service in New York City posted on social media platform X on Wednesday that the city has a low probability of snow and sleet Saturday into Sunday, with significant snowfall expected in areas west and north of the city.

Earlier this week, the NWS of New York said that 2023 would go down as the city’s “least snowiness” year, with just 2.3 inches (6 centimetres) measured in Central Park.