Weekend Nor'easter A Major Winter Storm With Heavy Snow, Wind In Carolinas, Virginia, Then Coastal New England
- - Weekend Nor'easter A Major Winter Storm With Heavy Snow, Wind In Carolinas, Virginia, Then Coastal New England
Rob Shackelford January 29, 2026 at 6:25 AM
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An East Coast storm this weekend will intensify into a bomb cyclone, with heavy snow, strong winds and coastal flooding from the nor'easter from the Carolinas to New England.
This latest storm has been named Winter Storm Gianna by The Weather Channel.
As often the case with East Coast storms, there remains a few uncertainties. So, check back with us at weather.com for updates to this forecast.
Timing
- Friday night: Snow will spread out of the southern Appalachians into lower elevations of southern Virginia, North Carolina northern South Carolina and northeast Georgia as low pressure organizes off the Southeast coast.
- Saturday and Saturday night: The storm gains strength along the Southeast coast with snow, heavy in spots, along with increasing wind. The snow could spread as far south as the Lowcountry of South Carolina and parts of eastern Georgia, especially Saturday night.
Overnight, some snow and increasing wind may spread farther up the Eastern Seaboard as far north as southeast New England.
- Sunday: While the offshore low reaches its peak intensity, snow may end by midday from the Delmarva Peninsula southward to Virginia and the Carolinas. Heavy snow is possible in parts of eastern and southern New England. High winds and coastal flooding at high tide are also possible along parts of the East Coast from North Carolina to New England.
- Sunday night and Monday: After lingering in at least parts of eastern New England Sunday night with snow, strong winds and coastal flooding at high tide, the storm moves away by Monday.
Snowfall
The best chance of heavier snowfall accumulations from Winter Storm Gianna is in two areas:
1. From southern Virginia to North Carolina and parts of South Carolina
2. Parts of eastern New England, potentially including areas that picked up over 20 inches of snow from Winter Storm Fern last weekend
Forecast guidance has come into better agreement that this will be a major snowstorm for North Carolina and the Virginia Tidewater region, where over 6 inches of snowfall is increasingly likely. Roads in these areas may become increasingly treacherous, if not impassable, by later Saturday or early Sunday, and may remain so through at least Monday morning with cold air spilling behind the storm.
One lingering question is regarding Boston's snowfall. It's still not clear whether the offshore low — or combination of lows — will pinwheel far enough offshore to keep any heavy snow potential pinned to Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, or may pivot heavy snowbands farther northwest into Boston.
The map below is the current snowfall outlook from Gianna. Areas in the purple contours have the best chance of heavier snow.
Winds, Coastal Flooding
Given the intensity of the storm (more on that later), there are two other threats this weekend, though the exact details remain yet to be resolved.
Winds: There is a threat for strong winds, capable of power outages and some tree damage, along at least parts of the East Coast from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to New England. Exactly where is still uncertain, dependent on the exact path of the storm. These winds may also combine with snow to produce blizzard conditions, at times, in parts of eastern North Carolina, southeast Virginia and eastern New England.
Coastal flooding: Coastal flooding at high tide is likely Sunday morning and Sunday evening along parts of the East Coast, particularly in the Virginia Tidewater, northern Outer Banks and southeast New England where strong winds will be most onshore, pushing water toward the coast. Compounding this is the lining up of this storm with Sunday's full moon, meaning tides will already be high.
Bomb Cyclone, Nor'easter
Low pressure off the Eastern Seaboard will become intense by Sunday.
It will wind up fast enough to be deemed a "bomb cyclone" a term for rapidly strengthening low pressure.
It's a scary sounding phrase, but it turns out bomb cyclones happen about once a year off the East Coast in the colder months, feeding off the sharp contrast between cold air over land moving over the warmer ocean.
This East Coast storm will also become a nor'easter, a term for an East Coast storm in which the winds ahead — to the north — of the storm come from the northeast.
(MET 101: Bomb Cyclones | Nor'easters)
One model forecast of the nor'easter, potential bomb cyclone off the East Coast on Sunday.
Check back with us frequently at weather.com for the very latest updates on this forecast.
Rob Shackelford is a meteorologist and climate scientist at weather.com. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia studying meteorology and experimenting with alternative hurricane forecasting tools.
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
