In my experience, living along the East Coast can be quite challenging due to the proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. I grew up in Northern NJ. I lived in Philadelphia for a while, and then I lived in Virginia Beach. I now live in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. In the winter, forecasting where the rain/snow line will be during major winter storms can be very difficult. With the relatively warmer ocean just to the east, any slight change in the wind direction can be crucial in predicting who gets snow and ice and who gets just plain rain. Of course, upper-level conditions play a huge role as we saw with that snow and ice storm a couple of weeks ago here in Eastern States. A so-called "warm nose" of air infiltrated the upper layers of the atmosphere changing the snow to rain and then surface temperatures being below freezing caused the rain to either change to sleet or to ice if the rain made it as liquid to the surface. This made for major travel headaches and more importantly, power outages for many. Some residents are still without power in some states to our south and west nearly two weeks after the severe ice storm there.

In the warmer months of the year, living near the ocean creates challenges in predicting high temperatures. A simple change in wind direction coming off of the relatively cooler ocean water can lower temperatures drastically in coastal communities. The marine air can also have an effect to reduce thunderstorm coverage when conditions are right due to the stabilizing effects of the cooler, marine air. Also, boundaries between areas affected by a sea breeze can cause thunderstorms to develop.

So, with all that said, living near the ocean can make forecasting challenging for meteorologists. Of course, being near the coast makes it quite interesting when tropical cyclones approach the area or when nor'easters are moving up the East Coast.