Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Bolaris: B-b-b-b-b-race for b-b-b-b-one chilling cold this week

The best Philadelphians will be able to say during this upcoming week is, "At least we're not in Boston."

The best Philadelphians will be able to say during this week is, "At least we're not in Boston."

The region will undergo a smack down by grumpy old man winter, as the coldest air masses of the season soon invade our region by Thursday.

Before those cold temperatures arrive, brace for a very slick go of it starting today. Rain and  freezing rain marked the start of the day Philadelphia and parts of Southern New Jersey and Delaware.

But tonight, will see a a change over to a different mix of freezing rain, sleet and maybe a little snow before ending late tonight or early Tuesday.  What you see really depends where you live.

The brunt of today's problems will be confined northwest of Interstate 476 and north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  The wintry mix could make the commute extremely difficult.

Temperatures were in the 30s today, but should drop to around freezing by 7 p.m. For now, it looks like problems related to that freezing rain in Philadelphia would take place after the evening rush hour.

Overall, there should be little if any accumulation of ice or snow.

Today's storm is the result of a low pressure system that will move off the Carolina coast by tonight. By Tuesday morning, the storm should be gone.

However, a bitter cold air mass will strike during the day on Thursday with rapidly falling temperatures and snow showers that could quickly coat the roads the morning of Friday the 13th. It will plummet to the single numbers in Philadelphia and near zero or below across our distant northern and western suburbs. Wind chill factors for the entire region will fall well below zero.

On Saturday, or what I'm calling the Valentine's Day Ice Box, we'll experience the coldest air mass of the year as a polar pipeline straight from Siberia crashes into the region. It should be about 5 degrees in the city by very late Saturday night. A clipper-like system attached to the polar front could produce a period of accumulating light snow.

Temperatures outside the city should drop below zero, without even considering the wind chill factor.

Farther into the future, if you're looking for storms, we have two potentials: one arriving Feb. 17; the  other Feb. 20 or 21 with a better chance for a significant snow event.