Delaware Valley Braces For First Taste Of Winter This Weekend
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Fall season officially kicked off with the Autumnal Equinox on Sept. 22, but for the first few weeks of the Fall season, we really have not had much in the way of colder temperatures, with a few times even climbing into the 70s.
However, that is all going to change by the end of this week and into the weekend as we get our first dose of really cold and arctic air pushing into the region starting on Friday.
A relatively potent cold front will slide into the region starting on Thursday, but won't truly make its effects known until late Thursday night into Friday and then on Saturday as well. The air mass that will cool us down is going to originate in northern Canada and be brought into the region on the back of a pretty strong northerly wind on the backside of the front. This is likely to be the first frost and freeze, possibly hard freeze of the year for Southeast Pennsylvania as well as South Jersey. Temperatures in the coming days are likely to peak only in the 40s while morning lows, especially Saturday and Sunday morning, hover right around the freezing mark, even in Philly.
High temperatures in the 40s like we could see will be more reminiscent of early December than early November. To accompany the cold afternoon "high" temperatures, we could close in on a record low on Saturday morning. The record on Saturday morning for Philadelphia is 21 degrees set in 1961, our current forecasted low on Saturday morning is 25 degrees. We will definitely be keeping an eye on the thermometers.
As of right now we do not have any kind of frost or freeze headline in the works for the next few mornings, but if temperatures continue to look as though they will be in the lower 30s and upper 20s across the region on Saturday and Sunday morning, it will not be out of the question to see a frost or freeze headline be issued for the Philly area and the surrounding counties.
If that happens you will need to make sure to bring in all plants from the outside or cover them appropriately to keep them alive as the temperatures drop.
If you are curious about how long the frost or freeze headiness will be issued for the region, here is how it breaks down. The National Weather Service will issue a frost or freeze headline for a county until it is deemed that 50 percent or more of the county has seen temperatures at or below freezing. At that time the growing season, as far as the National Weather Service is concerned, has ended and will no longer issue frost or freeze headlines for that county. If temperatures to do not drop low enough for a frost or freeze headline to be issued, the NWS will stop issuing those headlines on Nov. 15 for the the Philly area and South Jersey.
Better dust off the winter coasts! Have a great day and stay warm!
