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Philly snow updates: Several inches of snow already; road restrictions in place; updated storm timing and forecast

Upwards of a foot of snow is expected across the Philadelphia region, with sleet and freezing rain to follow.

A snowplow makes an early pass in Westtown, Pa. in Chester County Sunday.
A snowplow makes an early pass in Westtown, Pa. in Chester County Sunday. Read more
David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
What you should know

  1. Snow is falling in Philadelphia as a major storm makes its way through the Northeast. Forecasters expect nearly a foot of snow, followed by sleet and freezing rain.

  2. Here are maps with the latest snowfall and ice forecasts.

  3. Pennsylvania’s Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores will be closed Sunday, Philly schools will be closed Monday, and trash collection in the city will be suspended and delayed.

  4. You can be fined up to $300 for not shoveling your sidewalk in Philly. Here are the rules.

  5. Here's a list of the best sledding hills in Philadelphia, the suburbs, and New Jersey.

Photos: Snow blankets the region

$5 parking in Center City garages to avoid getting your car towed

As the snow covers everything on its path, parking on designated snow emergency routes is the fastest way to get your car towed.

To prevent this, the Philadelphia Parking authority is offering $5 parking for 24 hours in Center City garages until the snow emergency is lifted.

It's "better than being impounded,” the agency wrote on social media.

Plows out in Philly as snow blankets the region

PennDOT and Philadelphia plows are out on the roads Sunday, as snow continues to blanket the region.

Officials warn driving conditions are unsafe and are asking residents to avoid unnecessary travel, which will also aid their snow removal efforts.

If traveling, officials urge caution and suggest giving yourself at least six car lengths behind snow response equipment.

— Rob Tornoe

Heavy snow bands moving through the region

Heavy snow bands generating snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches an hour are rippling across the region, the National Weather Service says.

They also are reducing visibility to a half-mile or less, said Mike Gorse, a meteorologist in the Mount Holly office.

And nothing is melting. At 8 a.m., PHL was the regional hot spot at 15 degrees.

— Anthony R. Wood

Philly already has its biggest snow of the month

Not that the bar was especially high, but officially Philly has had its biggest snowfall of the month, with 1.6 inches measured officially at the mostly dormant Philadelphia International Airport.

That tops the 1.1-inch report of last weekend. It also brings the seasonal total to 8, and one of the safer bets is that this winter will end up being snowier than the winter of 2024-25 – 8.1 inches.

By 8:30 a.m., amounts of 2.5 to 3 inches were common throughout the region.

Heavy snow arrives, with ice to follow. It all may stick around for a week or more.

It may not approach their magnitudes, but Sunday’s snow-and-ice cold brew is expected to bear eerie similarities to some of Philly’s historic winter storms and perhaps rival them for disruption. 

By 7 a.m., up to 3 inches had been reported around the region, with heaviest amounts to the south where the snow started earlier.

Officially, at Philadelphia International Airport, 1.6 inches had been measured, already making this the city’s biggest official total of the month. But Center City trumped it at 1.8.

Early snow photos from across the Philly region

Cancellations piling up at PHL

At least 641 flights have been canceled going into or out of Philadelphia International Airport Sunday, as a major snowstorm moves across the Northeast.

Due to the reduced number of flights, TSA agents will only be operating at checkpoints A-East, D/E, and F.

Travels are encouraged to check with their airlines for the latest flight information.

— Rob Tornoe

How much snow will fall in Philly?

On Saturday, the National Weather Service was going with 8 to 10 inches for the immediate Philly area, said meteorologist Amanda Lee, with less to the southeast. AccuWeather Inc. was calling for 6 to 10 inches.

A lot of that would fall during a “front-end thump,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Elizabeth Glenny. Once the mixing begins, accumulation rates would back off.

While people understandably want to know how many inches of snow are going to land, that is almost always difficult to answer, meteorologists say, especially in a storm of this nature.

Timing of Philly storm

Snow is forecast to accumulate rapidly Sunday morning, with temperatures in the teens and snowfall rates of one to two inches per hour.

Models were suggesting sleet could mix in as soon as early afternoon, said Tom Kines, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.

Temperatures in the bottom 5,500 feet of the atmosphere are going to remain well below freezing. However, as the coastal storm intensifies, its onshore winds from the northeast are forecast to import warmer air from over the ocean into the upper atmosphere, which would change the snow to sleet and rain Sunday afternoon and evening,.

Vehicle restrictions on Pa. highways now in effect

Vehicle restrictions aimed at limiting the number of cars on roads statewide during Sunday's snowstorm are not in effect across Pennsylvania.

PennDot's vehicle restrictions are instituted in a tiered system, with today's coming in at tier four — the second-highest level. Under that tier, commercial vehicles are totally prohibited from using a number of interstates around Pennsylvania, as well as the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

"The decision to implement these restrictions was made with the intention of balancing safety for everyone on the roadway, including commercial drivers," PennDot secretary Mike Carroll told reporters Friday at a news conference. "We will remove these restrictions as soon as conditions warrant."

Top January snowstorms in Philadelphia history

Philadelphia could see double-digit snowfall totals for the first time in 10 years Sunday, as a massive storm makes its way across the Northeast.

But as large and disruptive as this storm will likely be, it will have a difficult time cracking the list of the top January snowstorms in Philly history.

A decade ago, almost to the day, 22.4 inches of snow fell in Philly, the fourth-largest snowstorm in city history. The blizzard basically forced SEPTA and the rest of Philly to shut down and blasted through the city’s budget.