Sloppy, slushy snow could hit Philly Sunday, but probably won’t stick around too long

Philadelphia could be hit with some sloppy, slushy snow Sunday.

After a banner day Saturday, with a downright balmy high of 47 degrees in Philly, forecasters now expect a coastal storm to spread precipitation through the region late Sunday into Monday,

“It’s one of those situations where if we have just enough cold air and just enough intensity, we could get several inches,” said Ray Martin, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly office. “But if the temperature is just a little bit warmer — even just a degree — it could end up being a rain-snow mix where there’s no accumulation. It’s a really borderline situation.”

Currently, forecasters are calling for an inch of snow in Philadelphia, Martin said.

“But I wouldn’t be shocked if we got unlucky and maybe got two to three inches of sloppy wet snow,” he said. “I also wouldn’t be shocked if we ended up with just mainly rain. There’s still some uncertainty with this forecast.”

Still, he said, more snow would not necessarily represent a major blow to Philly’s efforts to dig out from its most stubborn snowpack in 65 years, courtesy of January’s blizzard and recent polar temperatures. With temps expected to climb back into the low 40s Monday, any accumulation will quickly melt away, Martin said.

“Everything will look less brown,” he said. “But it’s not going to be 10 tons of snow or anything like that.”

The changing forecast comes 24 hours after earlier weather models showed higher potential snow totals, Martin said.

“There was some guidance suggesting a significantly higher snowfall of up to six inches of heavy wet snow,” he said. “But it’s way backed off from that.”