In my neck of the woods, just northwest of the city, a coating of sleet and freezing rain is accumulating. The QPF was a bit higher than I predicted last night; a few heavier areas of precipitation allowed some “dynamic cooling” and some snow flakes were able to develop briefly, but essentially it’s been sleet and freezing rain in PHL and the immediate suburbs.
Temperatures are still expected to rise above freezing about 10 AM or so. Rain is expected for most to the day, heavier in the afternoon.
The latest NAM data is becoming available. Precipitation, very light, expected to begin about 7 am Wednesday. As I’ve been saying since last night, temperatures in the upper atmosphere will be too warm to support snow in Philadelphia and the immediate adjacent PA counties and south Jersey.
In the lower levels of the atmosphere and at the surface, temperatures remain below freezing until 9-10am in and around PHL, so precipitation will fall as a brief period of light sleet and then light freezing rain, changing to all rain by late morning.
The issue for tomorrow morning will be icy conditions on untreated surfaces, not accumulations. Even a thin coating can be slippery.
One more thing…QPF values are very low in the morning, less than 0.09 inches water. The heavy rain will be during the afternoon.
