There’s just one week of winter left but Mother Nature is looking to send it out with a bang.
A blizzard watch has been issued for parts of the Northeast, including New York City and Boston, with up to 18 inches of snow expected in some areas beginning Monday.
The National Weather Service is forecasting the bitter blast to roll up the coast Monday night and into Tuesday for most of the region. Parts of New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts may see snowfall into early Wednesday.
“Strong winds gusting 40-50 MPH may cause blizzard conditions along portions of coastal New England,” NWS advised on its website Sunday.
A winter storm watch has also been issued for areas including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, upstate New York, New England and Washington, D.C.
The drop in temperature is sure to be a “noticeable difference” when compared to the unseasonably warm temperatures the region has seen over the past week, Brian Hurley, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center in Maryland told The Associated Press.
“It’s going to be a cold week,” he said.
In addition to higher-than-normal temperatures last week, last month was one of the warmest Februarys on record, the National Weather Service said.
Though high-impact snowstorms are rare for this part of the country in March, The Weather Channel points out that two of the three most intense snowstorms to hit the Northeast since 1956 were in March, according to the National Weather Service’s Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale.
A 1993 storm was deemed a Category 5, or “extreme,” storm while a 1960 storm reached Category 4, which is “crippling” status.