FOX Weather Meteorologist Jane Minar analyzes a brewing nor’easter forecast to slam the East Coast with winter weather from the Carolinas through New England this weekend.
The essential ingredients for a strong nor’easter are in the air, setting the stage for yet another major winter storm that will bring heavy snow to the East Coast for the second weekend in a row.
From the coastal Carolinas, through the Northeast and into New England, winter weather is forecast to return to the East Coast, and is likely to cause travel headaches on the ground and in the air this weekend.
(FOX Weather)
The storm is occurring on the tail-end of a major winter storm that produced some of the highest snow totals in a decade in the Northeast, while bringing harsh winter weather to the Southeast coast in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
With snow still piled up from the historic storm, vulnerable areas still digging out on the coast could be in for yet another significant snowstorm.
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The FOX Forecast Center just released a snow forecast map, which calls for up to a foot of snow to fall in North Carolina. The heavy, wet snow could make travel impossible by early Saturday morning across the state.
A snow plow works to clear the runways at Logan Airpot in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 25, 2026.
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GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA – JANUARY 25: Crews work to keep Main Street clear as sleet falls January 25, 2026, in Greenville, South Carolina.
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Workers clear snow in Copley Square during a snowstorm in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 25, 2026.
((Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images))
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JANUARY 25: A person walks through Boston Public Garden during heavy snow on January 25, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts.
((Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images))
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – JANUARY 25: A pedestrian walks through snowy conditions on January 25, 2026, in Louisville, Kentucky. A massive winter storm is bringing frigid temperatures, ice, and snow to nearly 200 million Americans.
(Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
Memphis residents shovel snow from a sidewalk in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, on January 25, 2026. A massive winter storm headed towards the northeast United States after sweeping across much of the country, threatening tens of millions of Americans with blackouts, transportation chaos and bone-chilling cold. After battering the country’s southwest and central areas, the storm system began to hit the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states with snow and freezing rain as a frigid air mass settled in across the nation.
(Photo by Kevin Wurm / AFP via Getty Images)
After the nor’easter forms off of the East Coast, first impacts will be felt in the Carolinas and Virginia, before the storm tracks north.
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The storm is expected to slide up the coast and “bomb out,” as it intensifies rapidly over the Atlantic Ocean.
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The FOX Forecast Center anticipates the heavily-populated Interstate 95 corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York City will miss out on the worst snow — just an inch or two for the nation’s capitol and New York City.
Though the I-95 corridor won’t see significant snow, Massachusetts and Cape Cod could bear the brunt of the storm, with snow totals near a half foot, and dangerously strong winds gusting up to 70 mph on Sunday.
(FOX Weather)
With the low forming off the Carolina coast, Myrtle Beach through Norfolk could see the biggest impacts from the storm Saturday, as the nor’easter sets its sight on Raleigh, North Carolina as a bullseye. The FOX Forecast Center expects between 8 and 12 inches of snow to fall.
The vulnerable coastal area was in the spotlight during hurricane season, as yet another storm threatens the Outer Banks, where more than a dozen beachfront homes were swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean.
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Cape Hatteras National Seashore (Seashore) is urging its visitors to avoid the beach and stay out of the water near the north end of Rodanthe and potentially for miles to the south, due to an early morning collapse of an unoccupied house.
(Cape Hatteras National Seashore)
Stay tuned with the FOX Forecast Center in the coming days to find out which East Coast states face the winter weather wrath this powerful storm has to offer.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
