Forget all that Winter Wonderland bunk. If you can get yourself indoors today while the roads are still clear, do it. The National Weather Service in Mount Holly, N.J., is predicting heavy snow throughout Greater Philadelphia from 6 p.m. today (Thursday, Jan. 2) to 1 p.m. Friday (Jan. 3). The weather service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for snow and blowing snow.
Snow accumulations could run from 3 to 7 inches.
Here’s the remainder of the cold facts:
— The storm should arrive from the south and east and start as rain or rain-snow mix this afternoon and change to all snow this evening. Most of the snow will come tonight into Friday morning.
— Travel should become hazardous this evening as ow begins to accumulate. This will be an increasingly fluffy ow and as winds increase tonight. Blowing and drifting ow will make travel even more hazardous. Road plowing operations will be greatly affected, especially due to blowing and drifting snow and also snowfall rates near an inch per hour at times during the height of the storm overnight tonight. It is possible that the combination of snow and wind creates near-blizzard conditions at times. Visibility will be less than a half-mile tonight.
— Blowing snow? Yes. Winds will blow 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph.
— Temperatures will range between the lower 30s to lower 40s this afternoon, then fall into the 20s and teens tonight. All areas should be in the teens by daybreak Friday. Where temperatures start out well above freezing today, flash freezing can occur tonight as temperatures rapidly drop below freezing and the snow increases.
For additional updates and weather information, visit www.weather.gov/phi
For further information on emergency preparedness, visit www.phila.gov/ready ull;•
