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Black Friday off to frozen start in Philadelphia area, slight warm up later

It's cold out there and it will barely get above freezing later in the day.

Sub-freezing temperatures send steam into the air at corner of North 10th and Arch streets in Philadelphia's Chinatown section on  Friday morning.
Sub-freezing temperatures send steam into the air at corner of North 10th and Arch streets in Philadelphia's Chinatown section on Friday morning.Read moreALEJANDRO ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer

Lines at stores may not have been very long, but Black Friday shoppers in the Philadelphia area had to brave temperatures in the teens as the annual shopping orgy got started under a bright full moon before dawn this morning.

A warm up is expected as the sun rises and moves higher in the sky, but the mercury will barely crack the freezing mark with a high of 33 expected around  2 p.m., according the the National Weather Service Forecast.

Overnight Friday into Saturday, the low will be around 29 before hitting an expected high of 50 Saturday.

The warmer temperatures will be accompanied by rain starting late Saturday morning/and continuing into Sunday before the skies clear, becoming mostly sunny with a high of 56. The rain Saturday could be heavy at times and the precipitation could start as sleet or freezing rain from the Lehigh Valley into the southern Poconos, the weather service says.

The return to work after the four-day Thanksgiving weekend is likely to be met by rain and high temperatures in the 50s.

As for Thanksgiving, forecasts that it could be the coldest in the Philadelphia in over 100 years proved unfounded. While it was indeed cold, the high of 33 after noon made it only the coldest since 1996, when the mercury did not break 30 degrees.