Philly region’s first big snowfall of the season will be followed by bitter cold temperatures

Philadelphians awoke to the first significant snowfall of the season on Sunday, with 3 to 7 inches of snow blanketing the area.

And although the worst of the snow is over, high winds and increasingly dangerous icy conditions will be moving in next, forecasters say.

“Conditions will be improving,” Tyler Roys, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather said Sunday morning. “The back edge of snow is within an hour of moving through the Philadelphia area. It will be done definitely by 10 a.m. Much of what you see outside is what we’re going to go with for storm totals.”

Totals for the storm, which hit the area around 11 p.m. Saturday, slightly exceeded earlier forecasts of 3 to 5 inches. Areas north of the city, like Doylestown and the Trenton airport, saw closer to 7 inches.

Lingering flakes may continue in sections of South Jersey throughout the morning, Roys said. If you’re going out to shovel, prepare to deal with heavy snow, he added.

“This snow is generally a wetter snow,” he said. “It’s heavier to move. It’s not easy as if it were fluffy snow. This one is going to take a little work.”

As the temperatures continue to fall throughout the day, the next concern becomes ice. With a high of 33 degrees today, temps will hit 22 degrees by 5 p.m., then plummet to 15 degrees in Center City. With wind chill and other factors, it will feel closer to zero outside tonight, said Roys.

Winds will turn increasingly gusty, said Joe DeSilva, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, with sustained winds of about 15-20 mph, and gusts as high as 40 mph later this afternoon.

Once the snow system departs, colder air moves in, with Monday morning temperatures hovering in the teens.

Icing will be an issue until temps rise later in the week.

“It’s going to be a concern tomorrow morning,” Roys said. “It’s going to be a concern Tuesday morning. Even going into Wednesday morning, you’re looking at temperatures getting below freezing. So anything that melts during the day is going to freeze, if it’s not pre-treated. ... People will have to be cautious as they are going about.”

At the height of the storm overnight, more than 26,000 PECO customers experienced outages across the region, said spokesperson Matt Rankin.

By late Sunday afternoon, around 3,000 customers remained without power. Crews are out working to get power restored to customers as quickly and safely as possible, Rankin added.

SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said crews will be monitoring for icy or dangerous conditions as the temperatures fall into the night.

Fans traveling on the Broad Street Line reported some significant delays shortly before kickoff, with at least one train reportedly stalled for 15 minutes near the Walnut-Locust stop, passengers said. Busch said the temporary slowdown and crowding had been due to a train being pulled out of service near Erie Avenue, but that the situation had been resolved.

Down at the stadium, tailgaters were not deterred by the snowy conditions.

“It’s been great,” said Jim Carroll, of Warren County, NJ, sipping a pregame beer in the parking lot outside the Linc with friend, Jim Singer. “Brutally cold, but setting up for a big Eagles victory so it’s all good.”

It was still snowing when Robert Rodriguez and Victor Sierra of Burlington County, and their family members, arrived hours before game time.

Sure it was cold, said Rodriguez, a season ticket holder for over 25 years. But he wouldn’t miss for it any amount of snow.

“The beauty of it’s perfect,” he said, nodding toward the snow-capped stadium in the distance.

Philadelphia International Airport was experiencing heavy delays with the effects of the storm, with over 182 flights delayed and 17 cancelations, said airport spokesperson Heather Redfern.

With planes being deiced for takeoff, departing flights are experiencing delays of about 38 minutes, Redfern said.

The airport briefly halted ground traffic earlier this morning, as crews tended to icy conditions.