Northeast, Mid-Atlantic facing first chance of significant snow in almost two years

Some meteorologists are predicting the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions could soon see their biggest winter storms in years.

"After a record-warm month of December for much of the U.S., January will be a different story, with a colder and more active weather pattern set to hit a large swath of the country through the first two weeks of the year," NBC News' weather experts say.

Cities along the East Coast are in the midst of their longest streaks of not having an inch or more of snow in a 24-hour period in years.

Christmas, itself, was an unseasonably warm holiday across much of the country, with some regions seeing record-high temperatures from Dec. 21 to 27.

But now Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City are bracing for significant winter storms. The possible storm system is expected to develop and affect eastern areas from Saturday to Monday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) reports that 2023 came in as a record low-snow year for the region.

"Confirming what you probably expected, 2023 will go down as the 'least snowiness' year in NYC/Central Park with just 2.3," NWS wrote online, providing details about how it measures snowiness.

NBC News' meteorologists say that the upcoming significant winter storm along the I-95 corridor from Richmond, Va., to New York City, in the coming days is "likely, but it's too early to predict exact snowfall totals."

The NWS offices in New York reported Wednesday that a strong coastal storm could pop up late Saturday into Sunday.

"With this system still 3+ days away, there is still a lot of uncertainty around what will occur. Forecasting the rain/snow line and amounts will become more clear over the next day or two," NWS forecasters wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.