Philadelphia weather: March gets a snowy start

A wet heavy snow that started falling in the Philadelphia area before dawn stuck to roadway surfaces, disrupting the morning rush hour on the first day of March and keeping alive the Flower Show curse. Here’s the latest of what we know.

Some schools outside the city are closed but many more opened late. NBC10 has the complete list. Philadelphia public and Archdiocesan schools in the city stuck to their regular schedules.

The snow has been sticking to roadways and even major highways are slushy. A number of accidents, mainly spin-outs, have been reported around the region. Motorists should leave extra time to clean off their vehicles and in making their trips.

SEPTA: A number of Regional Rail trains were running 10 to 20 minutes late.

The Route 35 bus is suspended. Other routes are operating with weather-related detours. For a complete list of detours, visit the System Status section of septa.org. The detours are the ones marked with the storm cloud/snowflake icon.

The ground hold for some flights destined to Philadelphia International Airport has been lifted but could result in delayed departures on turnaround in Philadelphia. More than 130 flights to or from the city have been delayed so far. Twenty-six flights to or from Philadelphia have been canceled. Check your airline for the latest status information.

The heaviest snowfall has been south and west of the city. Accumulation reports have been in the 1.5- to 3-inch range with 3.6 inches measured in Clifton Heights, Delaware County, and 3.8 inches in East Nantmeal Township in western Chester County. Three inches fell at Philadelphia International Airport, the official measuring site for the National Weather Service.

The region, except for northern Bucks and Montgomery Counties and coastal New Jersey, was previously under a winter weather advisory.

There’s a chance of rain after the snow ends.

The Philadelphia Flower show, which has been bedeviled by snow in recent years, opens Friday night and the morning snow should have no impact on that.

But you can be sure that show organizers will be closely watching the weekend forecasts as meteorologists track another storm and its possible impact on Philadelphia, which, as of early Friday afternoon, could bring rain or snow to the region late Sunday into Monday.

“Since the storm track remains very near our region, this continues to result in a challenging precipitation type forecast,” the weather service said in its forecast discussion.