WEATHER: Drastic Temperature Swing Hits The Region
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Rain is pushing back into the area tonight, and it's heralding the arrival of some much warmer temperatures, which will be very welcome across the area as we've been suffering through some bitter cold over the past several days.
Major swings on the way, we started the week with temperatures almost 20 degrees below average and now we'll be swinging to 20 degrees above average by Thursday.
But generally, you don't get a major pattern change without a bit of a fight, and that fight happens on Tuesday night. As rain moves into the area, it will be falling on ground that is frozen solid after days in the 20's and fresh snow from the weekend and last week.
Even though air temperatures are mostly above freezing, the ground is cold enough in our far western suburbs that we will see this rain freeze on contact, leading to the threat for dangerous ice and slippery road conditions through the first part of the overnight hours.
Eventually, temperatures will rise enough that the ice threat will come to an end and we'll just be looking at plain rain everywhere.
The above-average warmth will last through the end of the week, but on Saturday we'll see some cooler air try to push in and a weak storm system track along the boundary between warm and cold.
This could bring a period of light snow or a rain/snow mix to the region to start the weekend, along with a big drop in the mercury. We're still nailing down timing and precipitation type with this weekend system, so stay tuned.