Philly snow updates: Sleet takes over after largest snowfall in 5 years; updated totals, timing and forecast

Hours of percussive sleet layered a nasty icing on Philadelphia’s biggest snowfall in five years Sunday, and it may be some time before bare ground resurfaces in the region, if not normality.

This was not the stuff of postcards.

Officially 7.4 inches of snow was measured at unusually quiet Philadelphia International Airport, with similar amounts reported in the neighboring counties, as temperatures didn’t get out of the teens during the day anywhere near Philly.

A far-reaching winter storm blanketed the Mid-Atlantic in an icy brew of snow and sleet Sunday, with preliminary totals nearing a foot in parts of New Jersey. 

Philadelphia ranked near the top end of regional totals. A survey of five regional National Weather Service offices showed PHL’s total ranked 103rd of 565 reports made in the last six hours. 

The Philadelphia metropolitan region generally received between four and nine inches of snow by early Sunday afternoon, according to National Weather Service reports. 

At 1 p.m., 7.4 inches of snow was measured at Philadelphia International Airport, the biggest snow in five years.

It also pushed the seasonal total to 13.8 inches, also the highest since the winter of 2020-21.

Given how cold it was during the snowfall, the regional totals didn’t show their usual wide variations, and were mostly in the 6- to 8-inch range. It’s possible that another inch could be added to the totals with the slow-accumulating sleet and a possible flip-back to light snow before the precipitation ends.

Temperatures at the surface remain in the teens, but sleet has routed the snow throughout the region.

Before the changeover, weather service spotters reported as much as 7 inches of snow. By convention, spotters measure snow before changeovers, since sleet and rain compress the snowpack.

Sleet, which is liquid that freezes on the way to the surface, counts as snowfall, but it accumulates ponderously. A tenth of an inch of liquid will yield about an inch of snow, but it would take three times that to produce an inch of sleet.

Warming centers across Philadelphia will remain open during this storm as part of the ongoing Code Blue declaration, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said a news conference Sunday.

24-hour warming centers are available for use, stocked with water, snacks, blankets, warming kits, and cots, said Crystal Yates-Galle, deputy managing director for health and human services.

As of Sunday morning, there were 285 slots available. The city has an interactive map of warming centers here, or residents can call 215-232-1984.

Carlton Williams, director of the office of clean and green initiatives, debunked a widespread piece of misinformation he said has been circulating online.

No, he said, the city is not handing out free salt, which it needs for roadways and events given the expected icy conditions.

“We must be smart about the work that we’re doing ... because this is a matter of life and death if we don’t get this right,” Williams said at a news conference Sunday.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker asked people to stay home and off the roads if possible as the city grapples with a winter storm that has dumped about three inches so far — and is expected to turn to ice in the coming hours.

“This remains a significant winter storm, and there are rough travel conditions expected all day,” Parker said.

Parker said 1,000 city workers are clearing roads and sidewalks and battling snow with about 600 pieces of equipment, including triaxial dump trucks, loaders, sanitation compactors with plows attached, and pickup trucks.

As the snow covers everything in 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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."

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.