Another Big Storm For Northeast Next Week?

The operational members of the ECMWF and of the GFS both forecast another deep storm next week - Wednesday into Thursday. The above forecasts are at 120 hours from 0000 UTC on 22 January 2011 for 500 mb and surface pressure and are all valid at 0000 UTC on 27 January 2011. The ECMWF (top 2 panels) deepens the storm very dramatically and keeps it very close to the coast. The GFS (bottom two panels) deepens the storm further east over the ocean, with much less impact on the cities of the Northeast. It should be noted that many of the members of the GFS ensemble forecast also keep the storm closer to the coast, making the operational version somewhat of an outlier. Regardless, it looks like more snow for portions of the Northeast next week!