Lack Of Cold Air Preventing Weekend Storm From Becoming Big Snowmaker
By Kate Bilo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- I promise to keep this blog shorter than yesterday's, but I want to address Saturday and Monday's snow chances!
Saturday:
All those limiting factors we laid out yesterday? They have dominated the forecast and all our computer guidance is now coming into consensus. And if you were hoping to build a snowman on Saturday like my kids were... unfortunately you're going to have to keep waiting.
A lack of cold air, missing block pattern, speedy storm, warm ocean air drawn in - all of these will prevent our storm from being a blockbuster snowmaker for the Philadelphia area. It's rare to see an approaching nor'easter potentially bombing out offshore in late January and be talking about rain, but here we are.
We expect the precipitation to begin as snow, as early as midnight Friday night. Snow will fall through the early morning hours Saturday, but then change over to rain from east to west by daybreak. Rain will fall much of Saturday morning and then the storm moves out as rain or a brief mix by mid-afternoon. We expect a general 1-3" of snow across the Philadelphia area, but I wouldn't rule out seeing a few spots with higher than 3" in our far western suburbs where this will stay mainly snow. Also be aware of the threat for freezing rain mainly north and west after the snow falls, leading to slick road conditions.
Monday:
A clipper will swing down from the Great Lakes region and then potentially undergo a redevelopment off the coast early Monday. Sound familiar? Yep, very similar to yesterday's storm. The current track looks further north though and while temps may be mild at the surface at the onset of the storm, but they will crash during the day Monday, so there's more cold to work with. I think we may be in for several more inches of snow with this system, and it could impact the Monday morning commute. We'll iron out the accumulation numbers more tomorrow.
Behind Monday's system, we get an arctic slap in the face as temperatures plummet - subzero wind chills are possible for the area Tuesday into Wednesday with daytime highs no better than the twenties!
