After three mornings in the 20s, by Thursday, highs will be in the 70s

After one of the colder, wilder, and more-volatile days of the year and a sequence of mornings in the 20s, it might brighten your outlook to turn your attention to Thursday, presuming you can tolerate the threat of few showers.

Yes, it really is likely to reach the 70s around here on Thursday afternoon, Jonathan O’Brien, meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly, said Monday, a day that featured outbreaks of snow squalls and cellphone alarms around here, and a tragedy in central Pennsylvania.

Those Thursday readings could be about 45 to 50 degrees warmer than early Tuesday morning’s, when the fell to 26 at Philadelphia International Airport, and the low 20s in some areas outside the city. And before the great rebound takes wings, readings are forecast to head back to the 20s Wednesday morning for a third consecutive day.

“We’re getting all the seasons this week,” O’Brien said.

For now, it’s winter’s turn.

Squalls began rippling through the region late in the morning, appearing more plentiful than expected.

The squalls seemed to strike randomly and yielded to the sun almost as suddenly as they had arrived, and a lot of people likely were left wondering what all the fuss was about.

» READ MORE: What is a snow squall?

But they showed their disruptive power in Schuylkill County.

During a midmorning squall, a massive pileup occurred on Interstate 81, with dramatic social-media videos showing multiple vehicles plowing into each other. In all, 40 were involved and 24 people were taken to area hospitals, said John Blickley, an official with the Schuylkill County Office of Emergency Management. The Associated Press quoted a county official as saying at least three people were killed.

Blickley said he was surprised that vehicles evidently had failed to slow down despite the rapidly deteriorating conditions. The accident forced the closure of a 12-mile stretch of the busy highway for at least several hours, he added.

No significant problems were reported around here, but the behavior March 28, 2022, was wholly inappropriate for the eighth full day of spring.

The official high in Philadelphia of 36 degrees missed tying the 145-year-old record for the lowest maximum temperature for the date by one degree.The daily average temperature, 31, was just a degree above the record. Atlantic City’s high, 38, set a record, and Wilmington’s, 37, tied one.

Winds gusted past 35 mph, and wind chills were locked in the teens and low 30s.

» READ MORE: Yes, the weather has been topsy-turvy

The squalls were set off by a combination of frigid polar air in the upper atmosphere and the ground-heating effects of the late-March sun, meteorologists said. The warmer air was forced to rise furiously over the colder air, generating snow even though the air was bone dry.

“It’s similar to what we see with summer thunderstorms,” he said. Only about 50 degrees or so colder.

Temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to rise into the 40s, but some snow might mix in with rain on Wednesday morning.

Then comes Thursday. Rain is expected by late afternoon, and parts of the region are under the Storm Prediction Center’s “slight risk” zone for severe storms, Ray Kruzdlo, the hydrologist at the weather-service Mount Holly office, said Tuesday morning.

But no snow squalls.

Said O’Brien, “It’s going to be quite a turnabout.”