Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Bolaris: One clipper down, another to go

As first wave of moisture pulls away late this afternoon with some snow to the North and west, a mix of snow and rain will hit the city, with mostly rain in Southern New Jersey.

Update: 4:55 p.m.

As first wave of moisture pulls away late this afternoon with some snow to the North and west, a mix of snow and rain will hit the city, with mostly rain in Southern New Jersey.

The second more potent clipper will race across our southern 'burbs tonight with the threat of some accumulating snow.

But the timing looks good as we can expect a break in the precipitation just in time for your evening rush from 4 to 7 p.m.

The evening clipper storm will take an anticipated southern track moving across the Chesapeake, with a band of rain changing over to snow from central Delaware across southern Atlantic and Cape May counties in New Jersey.

There is a chance a quick inch of snow across southeastern New Jersey could be a little more if the changeover takes place more rapidly — allowing for a quicker drop in temperatures.

The bulls eye appears to be near Dover, Del., and points south. Two inches of snow are within reach there. Philadelphia and areas north and west of the city are not looking at any snow accumulation for tonight.

Here's how the timing looks to play out:

  1. 7 to 9 p.m.: Rain to mix.

  1. 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.: Snow.

Earlier:

As the first clipper moved away this morning bringing only light snow, the Philadelphia region can still expect a second system that's on its way tonight.

But first: Most of the clipper system that brought this morning's snow, sleet and just rain was east of Route 295 in New Jersey by noon and continuing to move toward New York City. It left minimal accumulations from a coating to an inch, with the highest amount reported in Coatesville, Chester County, at a whopping 1.5 inches.

A "clipper" is a rapidly-moving storm system that dives southeastward from the Great Lake region, not allowing time to gather moisture. About 70-80 percent of the time, such a system will clip us with some snow; in a few cases it can produce heavy snow.

For the rest of today, the precipitation will continue to move out and temperatures will flirt with the freezing mark from the city to the north and west. In South Jersey and Delaware, temperatures should remain above freezing.

Travel problems are not expected as roads are only wet, not frozen.

But the next clipper system will arrive this evening. Any mix of precipitation could change to snow as we cool below freezing.

For the city, we can expect perhaps a coating to 1/2 inch of snow – mostly after 7pm. Few weather-related problems are expected for the evening rush.

South Jersey and Delaware should expect a stripe of rain and sleet changing to snow that could leave up to an inch.

However, there is an outside chance that the second clipper could form a quick brief band of snow along its northwest boundary. That could leave up to two inches of snow in some spots, most likely in the line from Vineland, Cumberland County, to Toms River, Monmouth County. That's most likely between 8 p.m. and midnight.

The rest of the forecast:

Wednesday should be dry and cold with a high of 37. Thursday could see a high of 43.

Then expect a big warm up as we move into weekend, with temperatures rising into the low 50s by Friday. Saturday could also reach into mid-50s.

Sunday stands the best chance of zooming into the 60s before rain arrives overnight into Monday.