Snow total hiked for city, suburbs
The winter storm watch has become a warning, with snow totals raised to about a foot for Philadelphia and all of its surrounding counties.
The winter storm watch has become a warning, with snow totals raised to about a foot for Philadelphia and all of its surrounding counties.
More and more, tomorrow looks like another day of school closings, canceled flights and scattered power outages in the Philadelphia region.
Although, locally, the coming storm might not qualify for blizzard status - let alone be a "snowicane" - it's likely to bring lots of wet, heavy snow that coupled with strong winds could mean downed limbs and powerlines.
With gusts of 40 or more, especially later in the day tomorrow, this storm could rival or surpass the Feb. 9-10 storm, when more than 200,000 Peco customers lost service.
"It's not out of the question that there could be some blizzard conditions at times," said meteorologist Al Cope of the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly. Blizzards have gusts of 35 m.p.h. and visibility of a quarter-mile or less for at least three hours.
Areas north of the city could be in for even bigger headaches, with up to two feet into New York State and Northern New England, said Eric Wilhelm of AccuWeather.
Those areas also in for the strongest winds - gusting perhaps up to 70 m.p.h.
Because hurricanes have winds of 75 m.p.h. or more, some outlets, including AccuWeather suggested the event could resemble a "snow hurricane" or "snowicane" in parts of New York and New England.
Areas to the south of Philadelphia should get less snow - but still a half-foot for more in central Delaware and Cape May County.
At first, late tonight, the region might see rain or a rain-snow mix, but overnight the precip should become all snow, leaving a couple of inches on the ground for the morning rush.
During the day, snow might fall fast enough in the Philadelphia area that plows will have trouble keeping up, even on treated major highways, despite highs in the mid-30s, Wilhelm said.
The storm could linger into Friday morning, according to the storm warning issued this afternoon by the National Weather Service.
For more on the forecast, go to http://weather.philly.com.
