December 10, 2002
First, my apologies to those folks who visit this page and rely on the outlooks posted here. Last week's snowstorm was a typical case where I leave town for the week and we get clobbered. Well, at least that has been the trend in recent years, but I should be here in Philly for the remainder of the winter to update the site. In all, the tradeoff was nice as the Florida weather was perfect for my vacation.
Now on to the current weather. We have a weak area of low pressure just off of the Southeast Coast of the US. This is responsible for the cloud cover over the area today. This area of unsettled weather will be heading ENE and off of the coast tonight. However, as skies become partly cloudy behind the system, this will allow for a bit more cooling that progged by computer guidance this afternoon. Overnight lows should dip into the mid and upped 20s.
As the night progresses, cloud cover will again begin to increase with precipitation breaking out around daybreak in response to an upper level disturbance moving toward the area from the Southwest. Precipitation will begin as freezing rain across our area as temperatures aloft continue to warm and temperatures near the ground stay around freezing due in part to the snowpack currently in place throughout the area. As the day goes on, freezing rain *should* change to plain rain by midday in and around the city. Still, it will be quite raw out with high temperatures remaining in the mid and perhaps upper 30s. The setup is not an 'ideal' setting for a serious ice storm, but getting around will still be tricky to say the least early in the day, so take it easy if you are going out.
Farther to our West, freezing rain will be more of a problem as the colder air at the surface will take longer to be scoured out. There is a bullseye of precip just to our South and West, so things could be very tricky into Central Maryland and parts of South Central PA as temperatures struggle to get above freezing in those areas.
Things clear out on Thursday with a brief warmup in the works, high in the mid 40s. Friday will be decent as well with partly sunny skies and temperatures trying to near 50 degrees! More trouble on the horizon for the weekend as a storm system pulls out of the plains and midwest and redevelops offshore. A bit early to go into much detail about the weekend, but will go with mostly cloudy skies on Saturday and a chance of rain. Highs in the low to mid 40s.
Another update for Wednesday will be put out tonight after all guidance is in and a closer look into the weekend system. Take care!
S.B.
