NWS forecaster apologizes for blizzard that wasn't for many

SHARE NWS forecaster apologizes for blizzard that wasn't for many
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A person runs to catch the New York Waterway ferry on a walkway that was plowed following an overnight snowstorm, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, in Jersey City, N.J. A storm packing blizzard conditions spun up the East Coast early Tuesday, pounding coastal eastern Long Island into Maine with high winds and heavy snow. | Julio Cortez / AP

In the wild world of winter weather, location is everything. So small, last-minute changes in the air morphed what was supposed to be crippling feet of snow into a handful of inches. Fearful forecasts turned into apologies.

The not-so-great blizzard of 2015 did wallop the Northeast. Long Island and Massachusetts got hammered with more than two feet of snow, and it’s still falling.

RELATED: Blizzard hammers Boston area

But snowfall in the self-absorbed media capital of New York City, shut down in advance, stayed in the single digits. New Jersey and Philadelphia also were spared.

Meteorologists say the nor’easter stayed about 75 to 100 miles east of its forecast track.

So a National Weather Service forecaster in New Jersey — called a hero of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy — tweeted an apology for the errant forecast.

And an explanation for the change in forecast track was posted to the NWS New York page.

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