Category Archives: Weather Updates

Winter Weather Update

The wave expected to form Monday into Tuesday has developed earlier and is currently moving up the coast,  brushing our southern region with light snow.  The GFS still keeps this away from Philadelphia, but the modeling of this wave of low pressure has been anything but accurate.   I had mentioned that the model trends were closer to the coast, but this wave has formed earlier and much more westward.

The latest NAM has 0.07 inches water  (QPF) falling as light snow at PHL airport this afternoon.   This could be an inch of snow if it verifies.  This needs to be watched, since this wave of low pressure was not captured by the models even yesterday to hit us.

Sunday Weather Update

The warm front will move through our area this morning (Sunday) about 10 AM and showers will taper around noon or a bit later.   Highs will be in the upper 50s and perhaps higher if we get some breaks of sun in the afternoon.

Updated 1 PM: The short range HRRR model shows showers developing ahead of the cold frontal passage..   There may be several lines of showers moving through PHL between 2 PM and 5 PM as the front moves through.

An approaching strong cold front will move through around sunset today.  Frontal passage is expected to be dry.   Skies will clear this evening and gusty winds will drop temperatures about 30 degrees by Monday morning; we’ll go from near 60 today to the upper 20s tomorrow morning.

The frontal passage this evening marks somewhat of a weather pattern change for our area. It appears that for the next week or so, we will be under the influence of a typical winter mid level trough, bringing cold temperatures, probably below average.

Associated with this new pattern will be an increase in the possibility of clipper systems, eddy currents  of spin (vorticity) that provide lift and cause light precipitation.  Tuesday shows a clipper system that may bring light snow or flurries to our area for the first time this season, although most of the action passes to our north.

The longer range forecast models continue to be highly inconsistent– a possible coastal storm development for next weekend seems to come and go with each successive model run.