January 17, 2004
12:30 PM update in red
More wintry weather on the way for Saturday night. This system should not be a big deal, however I will give a brief synopsis.
Saturday will feature partly sunny skies early with increasing clouds as the day goes on. High temperature Saturday around freezing. Good chance of snow breaking out between 7PM and 10PM. Farther South it could start as a mix of snow and sleet. Temperatures near the ground will drop into the upper 20s, but temperatures in the upper part of the atmosphere will warm rather quickly. This will likely cause a change in precip type from South to North. Delaware County should mix with and possibly change to sleet overnight Saturday. There is a chance that precip 'could' go over to plain rain early Sunday morning, but with surface temps still very cold, it could be a brief period of freezing rain (ice). Any accumulations of snow will be minor (.5"-2"). Any precipitation will end during the morning Sunday as a cold front presses South through the region.
The weather for the EAGLES game looks decent. Seasonably cold with temps in the mid 30s at kickoff. Winds will be light. Forecast: EAGLES - 23 Carolina - 14
So, more wintry weather Saturday night and Sunday morning. This is not a major storm at all. Ice could still make things slick early Sunday. Take care!
Still sticking with my original thinking from late last night. However, will raise potential snowfall totals just a touch to the range of 1-4" possible. While some guidance spits out up to 6" snow before any changeover to mixed precip, I believe that it is overdone in it's analysis. The toughest call will be exactly when we turn over to a mix of sleet and snow here just West of Philadelphia. Obviously, an earlier change will limit totals, a later change will yield higher snowfall totals. What is not really all that surprising to me is that newest guidance continues to push this system farther North and West. With that said, a changeover to mixed precipitation is very likely. Conditions Sunday morning could be downright nasty and temperatures near the ground hover around freezing. While we will not have optimum conditions for freezing rain, it is a good possibility tomorrow morning. Newest guidance also tries to push another surge of precipitation our way while colder air aloft is racing back South and East Sunday afternoon. This *could* result in some frozen precipitation later in the afternoon. So, conditions are changing rapidly and as a result, forecasts in the area will vary also. FYI, the forecast for the final score of the EAGLES game still stands (see above).
S.B.
