BOSTON — High wind and soaking rain will sweep coastal regions of the Northeast on Tuesday, threatening to tie up air traffic and send holiday decorations flying.
Northern New England and upstate New York, however, are bracing for a wintery mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. Some places in the region could get as much as a foot of snow by the time the storm moves north out of Maine on Thursday.
Flood watches and advisories stretch from Massachusetts to Virginia as the storm shapes up in the western Atlantic, the National Weather Service said. Snow may fall from northeastern Pennsylvania to Maine, most of which is covered by a winter storm warning.
The winds may cause air traffic delays and knock down holiday decorations, said Tim Morrin, a weather service meteorologist in Upton, New York. The weather service is warning people to take extra care securing things that aren’t normally outside, such as lights and holiday displays.
As much as 2 inches of rain may fall in New York starting about 6 a.m., possibly causing flooding in areas where there’s poor drainage. Gusts of 45 to 55 mph are forecast.
Rain will begin in Washington, D.C., later Monday with the chance of showers continuing through Dec. 10, the weather service said. Philadelphia may get some snow, with little accumulation. Snow showers are forecast for Boston through Monday.
Rob Carolan, a meteorologist at Hometown Forecast Services Inc. in Nashua, New Hampshire, said warmer air will push into the coast later today, turning any snow into rain later. There’s a chance that upstate New York and the northern New England states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine could get as much as 12 inches of snow.
“Somebody is going to get buried,” Carolan said. “Someone is going to have over a foot of snow from Berkshires, the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains, the White Mountains.”
In Maine, the storm is expected to bring significant snow, sleet and freezing rain as it slowly makes its way north, according to the weather service’s Caribou office.
What was a winter storm watch for roughly the northern two-thirds of the state earlier in the day was upgraded to a warning, effective from 4 p.m. Tuesday through noon Thursday. Northern Maine and parts of east central Maine could seen 8 to 12 inches of snow along with around a quarter of an inch of ice.
Affected areas include Aroostook, Piscataquis, Somerset and northern Penobscot counties.
Meanwhile, a winter weather advisory is in effect for southern Penobscot and parts of Hancock and Washington counties, which could get 2 to 4 inches of snow and about a quarter inch of ice from late Tuesday afternoon through noon Wednesday.
While New York City may see some flakes during the course of the week, there shouldn’t be any accumulation, he said.
The wind advisory will end tomorrow at 6 p.m. in New York while the flood watch runs until 1 a.m. the day after. The alerts end overnight tomorrow for coastal New England.
A large upper-level low-pressure system will capture the storm and keep it lingering around the Northeast through much of the week, meaning New York and Boston may not see sun until the weekend.
As more unsettled weather comes across the United States, there’s a chance another storm may form in the Atlantic south of Massachusetts.
BDN writer Dawn Gagnon contributed to this report.