Strong Nor'easters Expected To Hit Pennsylvania As Fall, Winter Arrive

Winter could hit Pennsylvania hard this year.

Instead of hurricanes and snowstorms, however, nor’easters could dominate the forecast.

The Northeast Regional Climate Center has issued a forecast calling for a higher-than-normal number of strong nor’easters this fall and winter.

The Cornell University-based center had issued its preliminary East Coast winter storm forecast for the 2015-16 season, predicting more than 10 of the strong storms will arrive in the 2015-2016 fall and winter season.

Compared hurricanes, nor’easters tend to last longer, and slowly churn along the coastal areas, usually dropping several inches of precipitation and bringing strong, damaging winds.

The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center says temperature and precipitation impacts associated with El Niño are expected to remain minimal during the early Northern Hemisphere fall, but increase into the late fall and winter.

El Niño will likely contribute to a below-normal Atlantic hurricane season, and to above-normal hurricane seasons in both the central and eastern Pacific hurricane basins, according to the center.

“It is indicating the chance of higher than normal temperatures and wetter than normal temperatures,” said Mitchell Gaines, an NWS meteorologist in Mount Holly, N.J. “We are going to have a strong El Nino which does indicate a stronger storm track.”

Fewer East Coast storms overall, or less than 25, are expected for the region, however.

By comparison, there were nine strong storms last year - even though Pennsylvania and other Mid-Atlantic states experienced high snowfall amounts in February and in early March.

Before that, there were 11 strong storms in 2013-14, 11 in 2012-13 (the year of Superstorm Sandy), five in 2011-12 and 12 in 2010-11.

One of the worst nor’easters to hit New Jersey occurred in December 1992, when a storm flooded much of the Jersey Shore, sinking cars and storms underwater from Long Beach Island to Sea Bright, N.J.