Philly area measures weekend snowfall totals as winter’s coldest weather moves in
Totals varied throughout the Philadelphia region with a high of 4.9 inches in East Rockhill Township, Bucks County, to less than an inch at Philadelphia International Airport.
Sunday’s snowfall might have been the best winter weather has to offer: Just enough to enchant, without back-knotting amounts to shovel.
Totals varied throughout the Philadelphia region, with a high of 4.9 inches in East Rockhill Township, Bucks County, to less than an inch at Philadelphia International Airport.
The official National Weather Service observation for the region in Mount Holly, Burlington County, was 3.6 inches.
Snowfalls were reported over 24 hours by National Weather Service employees, trained spotters, weather stations, automated systems, and the public. They do not include Saturday’s snow.
Overall, the weekend was good news for skiers. Stroudsburg in Monroe County in the Poconos received 4.2 more inches of powder that resorts didn’t have to make.
Weisenberg Township in Lehigh County received 4.8 inches.
Areas farthest east of the city, including the Shore region, received the least amount of snow. Atlantic City International Airport reported only a dusting.
But with most homeowners and businesses likely to be shoveled out by Monday night, forecasters warn the coldest weather of the winter so far is on the way — along with bitter wind chills, according to Joe DeSilva, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
“For this week, it’s going to be mostly cold,” DeSilva said. “Especially tonight [Monday] and tomorrow night we’ll have wind chills mainly in the single digits. Tonight we’ll have windchills around zero to five degrees above zero.”
In fact, the weather service says windchills could even dip to -15 degrees Monday night into Tuesday morning northwest of the I-95 corridor.
The weather service has issued a cold weather advisory as a result.
DeSilva said the jet stream is due to dip south — like a big door swinging open to let in all the frosty air from the Arctic and Northern Canada.
“Once that passes tonight,” DeSilva said, “the cold air will start pouring in.”
The forecast calls for Martin Luther King Day to be sunny with a high of 35 degrees. Lows will dip tonight to around 15 with 10 to 15 m.p.h. winds.
Then the cold settles in, with a high of only 23 on Tuesday with a low of 10.
Some relief comes on Wednesday with a forecast high of 36 and overnight lows of 28.
Thursday, however, looks like a return to more normal temperatures with a mostly sunny day and a high of 43.
Unfortunately, bracing cold returns for the weekend, with a low of 13 overnight Friday night and a low of 8 overnight Saturday.