Winter is still better than a week away but we are about to experience the most-eventful winter weather since March with storms today and perhaps a bigger one on the weekend.
A storm from the Southwest is colliding with a cold dome of air over the Northeast and Midatlantic, and that is going to set off some significant precipitation today.
The forecast calls for snow and sleet to creep into the region, thankfully right after the peak commuting period this morning.
It looks like it will change to rain everywhere south and east of the city but the frozen varieties might last longer to the north and west.
At this late date the discriminating reader will find plenty of hedging in the National Weather Service forecast discussion.
The official forecast calls for 1 to 3 inches in the Pennsylvania suburbs. The Accu-Weather map has the 1 to 3 line drawn just north of Philadelphia.
Elsewhere, it looks like a cold and heavy rain will dominate.
As for the weekend, the models have been consistent in blowing up a storm off the East Coast.
Once again, the I-95 corridor will be in the battleground zone between warmer and colder air, and some mixing and possibly a complete changeover is possible in Philadelphia.
Reading between the lines, the total precipitation amount from that storm is expected to be about an inch. That’s the water equivalent of about a foot of snow, but mixing would suppress the accumulations.
If the computer models are accurate, this one would be a nasty nor’easter, with powerful onshore winds stirring beach-eroding waves and heavy snows in the interior Northeast.
You can track the latest thinking and rumors among the professionals and snow enthusiasts here.
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