More snow is possible Monday around Philly, but after three weeks of this, a winter break is likely
The sun might even reappear this weekend.
Snowy morning along North 29th Street north of Lehigh Avenue in Philadelphia on Thursday morning. Light snow and sleet continued into Friday afternoon.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
It is not going to snow this weekend. It’s not even going to sleet. The sun might even reappear, and the atmosphere is hinting strongly that after three rather eventful weeks in the Philadelphia region, winter might soon be going on break.
It just might take its time packing. Temperatures Saturday and Sunday aren’t expected to get much above freezing, forecasters say. Monday should be a few degrees warmer, but also it might snow again, perhaps a few inches north and west of the city before turning to rain.
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Highs in the 40s are expected later next week, and the government’s Climate Prediction Center outlook into the first week of March sees a significant pattern change that will chill the West and warm the East. It’s at least possible that by the end of the month, some folks again will see how much spring yard work awaits them.
While the sun is gaining power by the day, parts of the region are encased in a dense snow-and-ice pack that likely is going to take some time to vanish after three weeks of actual winter around here.
Glen Jamison (front) and Steve Rogers (with blower) help elderly neighbors in Lawnside, N.J., in between working on their snow removal contracts.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
Delaware Waterfront Corporation employee Curtis Gilyard uses a snow blower to clear a path at the Blue Cross Riverrink Winterfest in Philadelphia.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer
Funeral director Frank Jackson shovels some of the snow near his Jackson Funeral Home in Westmont, N.J., near the PATCO station. He has a snow removal service, but wanted "give them a head start." Plus, he says they can't get as close to his building with their plow truck.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
Sledders come and go at a popular hill inside the Haddonfield Friends Meeting Burial Grounds.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
A pedestrian makes their way through the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer
Wallace Costa clears the snow outside Positano Coast restaurant in Philadelphia.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer
About six to eight inches of snow blankets Phoenixviille, Pa., at Bridge and Gay streets.Read moreSTEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer
Dorian Williams shovels the snow in his parking spot in Norristown, Pa.Read moreJESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer
Anthony Maffei clears a sidewalk in Norristown, Pa.Read moreJESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer
(From left) Seamj Bryant, 11, Breden Holmes, 5, Shayla Smith, 12, and Dyashim Boone, 8, shovel the sidewalk outside their grandmother's home on 46th Street in West Philadelphia.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer
A man shields himself from sleet using an empty ice melt bag along Market Street near 41st Street in West Philadelphia during Thursday's winter storm.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer
Snow falls onto a payphone near 42nd and Chestnut streets in West Philadelphia.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer
Pigeons take off from the snow-covered sidewalk on the 4200 block of Market Street in West Philadelphia.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer
Residents shovel the sidewalk in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer
Michelle Lipson skis to her studio, Michelle Lipson Woodworking, by Front and Master streets in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer
A pedestrian waits for the bus on Girard Avenue in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer
Pedestrians walk underneath the El by Jefferson and Front streets in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer
A truck with a snow plower drives by on Lancaster Avenue at Villanova University.Read moreTYGER WILLIAMS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A person waits for the bus on Girard Avenue in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer
A couple walks over a bridge above Lancaster Avenue at Villanova University with St. Thomas of Villanova Church in the background.Read moreTYGER WILLIAMS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A pedestrian walks along 12th Street on the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer
Pedestrians navigate the snow covered streets in Norristown, Pa.Read moreJESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer
Icicles form under the Wood Street tunnel as a snowstorm blankets Philadelphia.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer
Woman walks a dog along Arch Street heading towards North 10th Street during a morning walk through Chinatown section of Philadelphia.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
A pedestrian at North 10th and Arch streets shields themselves from the falling snow in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
A pedestrian treks through falling snow over covered sidewalks along the 900 block of Arch Street in the Chinatown section of Center City Philadelphia.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
A snow shovel crew clears steps on the north side of Philadelphia City Hall.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
A Philadelphia Streets Department snow plow makes its way south on North 28th Street near York Street.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
Munir Moore, 3, his sister Lyric Moore, 7, and cousin Dahiem Quail, are pulled down the hill on a tarp by their older siblings, Samir Quail, 17, and Braheem Moore, 15, at Fairmount Park.Read moreTYGER WILLIAMS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
And for parts of the region, particularly a narrow corridor arcing from Chester County into central New Jersey, what fell from the skies was so much drizzle in the ocean.
Some areas to the north and west of the city measured double-digit snow totals Thursday, most of it falling at astonishingly rapid rates, 2 and 3 inches an hour.
The contrasts in amounts were almost equally astonishing. This has been a familiar phenomenon since the winter rediscovered itself at the end of last month. Cumulative totals for the four storms have ranged from just more than 16 inches at Philadelphia International Airport to 2 to 3 feet in areas to the north and west.
The reasons are deeper than just the typical Philadelphia International Airport banana belt vs. the region’s usually snowier areas. Totals have differed within municipal boundaries.
On Thursday in the Wayne section of Radnor Township, Delaware County, 10.2 inches was measured on Thursday; in the Villanova section, 5.8 inches. Malvern, Chester County, reported 10.2; West Chester, eight miles away, less than 4.
Officially, 3.4 inches landed upon the airport measuring station; nearly 9 inches was reported from Chestnut Hill.
In the city’s case, the airport is near sea level; Chestnut Hill, about 450 feet up, which would make it chillier than the lowlands, and upward sloping terrain could give the rising air that causes snow an extra lift.
But the diverging snow amounts Thursday had more to do with the dramas of the upper atmosphere, said Patrick O’Hara, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly and a veteran of the Buffalo lake-effect snow wars.
People tend to focus on what’s happening with weather systems at the surface — a “low” here, a “high there” — but “you have to look at what form the vertical perspective,” said O’Hara’s colleague Nicholas Carr.
Snow falls when warmer air rises over colder air and condenses. On Thursday warm air associated with the approaching storm was launched upward by the cold air at the surface, a deeply diluted version of what chilled Texas during the week.
The heaviest snow was focused on a narrow corridor where the “lift” was particularly robust, getting a kick from jet-stream winds near 200 mph at 40,000 feet, and a zone of winds up to 70 mph near 7,000 feet, said Carr.
As often happens, if one area is under a profoundly heavy snow band, chances are that snow amounts will be less on either side. Plus, away from the band, more sleet was falling. Since sleet weighs about three times as much as snow, the average shovel probably didn’t know the difference between 4 inches or 10 inches.
I am a staff writer and a weekend editor. I write about a variety of subjects, but most often about the neighborhood where we all live — the atmosphere.
