[palmer]

That is true, the two are shown very nicely on national radar

However, the two storms have to merge and explode into a new one without missing a beat because the jet will sweep the whole mess out to sea even faster if they don't merge. This situation has a high potential of a miss, meaning a 6-12 type of snowstorm from the unmerged storms going by.

[muawiyah]

The problem with that theory is 'temperature differential' ~ the ocean in this latitude is rarely frozen ~ maybe once or twice for a few days even at glacial peak ~ and what that does is allow the Southern storm to hug the shore ~ hence our quite rational fears of nor'easters ~ there, got that right that time.

They tend to NOT come ashore ~ but they hug it so close they usually remove most of the beach sand and all the structures and fixtures but those made of steel and concrete.

The Northern storm is, at best, being steered by the jet stream tugging at it, but it's heavy enough to simply be smoozing about ~ caught in some pretty cold, heavy air.

When the Southern storm comes into range it will be whipping lower level winds around at hurricane speed directly at the New York/New England Coast ~ and it will dump just all sorts of snow on everything.

New England deserves a very destructive and nasty 4 foot snow with 60 foot high drifts. They gave us Romney. They voted for Obama. What is there to like about these guys ~ let it snow!!!!

[muawiyah]

The head of the comma shaped storm is forming up nicely over Michigan while you can see rotation just off the South Carolina coast.

Now they'll make their move and rake their way through the Northern tier of states, and the NE coast.