Quick-hitting Snow Before Weekend Warm-up
By Kate Bilo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Well, it's March 25th, and we're tracking snow. Would we expect anything less from this winter?
Does it surprise you if I tell you that the date of the last snow LAST year was also March 25th? Last year, however, we had well below average snowfall and the late March snow was falling on blooming flowers. Not this year!
We haven't made many changes to the snowfall forecast this Tuesday afternoon, except to allow for the potential for locally higher snowfall amounts across portions of coastal NJ and DE. That part of the region is truly living on the edge, as the storm will begin to really strengthen just offshore. A negatively-tilted trough axis will attempt to pull the storm back toward the coast, but it looks as though this shift in movement will occur too late to greatly impact our area.
Snow is trying to move through our region this afternoon, but the air is just so dry that it's really having a hard time reaching the ground. We've had reports of light flurries across portions of Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties and we do expect a period of light snow in our north and west zones through mid-afternoon. But with temperatures above freezing and daylight conditions with a strong March sun angle, anything that falls will only accumulate on unpaved surfaces.
It's later tonight, after about 7 p.m., that we'll begin to see the potential for banding through the shore points as the far western edge of this storm impacts that area. It will be winding down by midnight, so it's a quick hitter, but some spots along the shore could pick up 2-4" with locally higher amounts - if the banding sits over any particular area for a while, I wouldn't be shocked to see a five or six inch report. Around the city and nearby suburbs, we expect a general 1-3", mainly on grassy surfaces.
In the wake of this storm, tomorrow is another wintry late March day. Winds will be strong, making our very cold high of 38 feel more like the teens all day. We finally warm up to the 60s by the end of the week, but that warming comes with the threat for rain both Friday and Saturday.
