7:00 AM | ****Major coastal storm to greatly impact the Philly metro region from later tonight into tomorrow night****

6-Day Forecast

Today

A bitter cold start to the day with mostly sunny skies followed by increasing high clouds late in the day, highs in the mid 20’s

Tonight

Cloudy with snow developing around midnight and becoming heavy at times late tonight, cold, lows not far from 20 degrees

Thursday

Snow mixing with or changing to sleet and/or freezing rain; especially, from I-95 to points south and east, cannot rule out some “thunder snow”, any mixed precipitation changes back to snow by tomorrow night, highs in the low-to-mid 30's

Thursday Night

Snow lingers well into the evening; otherwise, mostly cloudy, windy, total accumulations of 8-14 inches with the highest amounts to the north and west and the lowest amounts to the south and east, cold, low 20’s

Friday

Becoming partly sunny, cold, upper 30’s

Saturday

Partly sunny, breezy, cold, maybe a few snow showers, low 30’s

Sunday

Partly sunny, cold, more snow showers possible, low 30’s

Monday

Partly sunny, cold, low 30’s

Discussion

The winter of 2013-2014 will be remembered in much of the Mid-Atlantic region as one of the worst in recent history in terms of cold, snow and ice. There were the cold and snowy winters of 1976-1977 and 1977-1978, and the great ice storm winter of 1993-1994, and then the snowiest winter of all-time just recently in 2009-2010. This winter has featured long stretches of relentless cold with near–zero temperatures on numerous occasions not seen around here in many years. In addition, snowfall amounts are at well above-normal levels from numerous systems and, of course, there was the massive ice storm last week that crippled Pennsylvania with 850,000+ power outages. Now it appears quite likely that a major east coast storm will be added to this winter’s resume.

This storm has already caused major problems in the Deep South in terms of ice and snow and a widespread swath of heavy snow is likely over the next 48 hours from the higher elevation mountains of the Carolinas to northern New England and significant icing is possible just to the south and east of this heavy snow accumulation band. Strong low pressure will move to around Norfolk, VA by later tonight on its way to just off the New Jersey coastline by tomorrow evening and then to near Cape Cod, MA by early Friday. Snow should begin later tonight around here and continue into Thursday and then it'll mix with or change to sleet and/or freezing rain for awhile; especially, from I-95 to points south and east. If a changeover to mixed precipitation does indeed occur, then it’ll likely change back to “wrap-around” snow later tomorrow as we enter the “cold conveyor belt” region of the storm on its northwest flank. There is also the possibility for some “thunder snow” to occur during this upcoming event and expect precipitation intensities to be quite variable on Thursday. The "wrap around" snow will linger well into tomorrow night potentially forcing driving problems to continue into early Friday. Current snowfall estimates are in the 8-14 inch range with the higher amounts in that range occurring in the northern and western suburbs (e.g. western and northern Chester County, northern Bucks and Montgomery Counties) and the lesser amounts to the south and east (e.g. South Philly).

Video

httpv://youtu.be/vz19gIrmf6U