Snow threat for the Philly region is fizzling, and record warmth is possible Saturday
Officially, the National Weather Service is sticking with an outside chance of snow during the day as a weak storm passes south of the region, but it has removed any accumulation from the forecast.
What already was an inconsequential snow threat for the Philly region Wednesday is all but off the board, forecasters say, and chances are you won’t even need the windshield wipers. By Saturday you might not even need a coat.
Officially, the National Weather Service was sticking with an outside chance of snow during the day as a weak storm passes south of the region, but it has removed any accumulation from the picture.
Wednesday and Thursday will be the coldest days of the season thus far, with daytime temperatures mostly in the 30s, but after that it appears we are going to be joining a rather extraordinary national December warming trend.
Temperatures Saturday could reach all the way into the low 70s, said Michael Silva, a lead meteorologist at the weather service’s Mount Holly office. The record for the date in Philadelphia is 65 degrees.
“We could see a bunch of records across the region,” he said.
The Climate Prediction Center’s two-week outlook through the winter solstice has odds strongly favoring above-normal warmth in much of the contiguous United States. Temperatures could average 5 to 10 degrees above normal in Philadelphia and much of the East, “putting winter-like weather on hold,” it said.
The usually circumspect climate center forecasters set probabilities for above-normal warmth at 90% in our region, an extraordinary degree of confidence for an extended outlooks.
“That’s rare for them,” Silva said.
High pressure, or heavier air that suppresses storms, is forecast to dominate the nation from the Rockies to the East Coast and increase precipitation deficits east of the Mississippi. In the last 30 days, precipitation in every county in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware was significantly below normal.
The west-to-east jet stream winds that move storms and are the boundaries between warm and cold air are forecast to be north of the region and aligned to drive quite mild southerly winds toward the region, Silva said.
No significant storms are brewing, and chances are excellent that overuse won’t be an issue with your snow shovel between now and the arrival of the astronomical winter at 10:59 p.m. Dec. 21.
“You may need it sometime this season,” Silva said, “but not anytime soon.”