7:00 AM | ***Wintry mix on Thursday morning...can leave a small accumulation of snow and/or ice before a changeover to plain rain...heavy rain/strong winds on Thursday night***

6-Day forecast for the Philadelphia, PA metro region

Today

Mainly sunny, cold, highs not far from 40 degrees; N-NW around 5 mph

Tonight

Mainly clear, quite cold, lows in the lower 20’s

Wednesday

Mainly sunny with late day high clouds, cold, near 40 degrees for afternoon highs

Wednesday Night             

Becoming mainly cloudy, cold, snow or a wintry mix possible late, mid-to-upper 20’s for late night lows  

Thursday

Mainly cloudy, cold, wintry mix in the morning changes over to plain rain in the afternoon, small accumulations of snow and/or ice possible before the changeover, increasingly windy, near 40 degrees; heavy rain and strong winds on Thursday night

Friday

Mainly cloudy with the chance of AM rain, chilly, breezy, near 45 degrees

Saturday

Mainly sunny, cold, near 40 degrees

Sunday

Mainly sunny, cold, mid-to-upper 30’s

Discussion              

Low pressure has pushed into the central states and will generate blizzard conditions in the Northern Plains with heavy snow and powerful winds.  This storm will push to the northeast tonight and the blizzard conditions will extend from the Dakotas and Minnesota into the northern half of Wisconsin. Meanwhile, on the storm’s warm side, severe weather is breaking out already today across Texas and Oklahoma and the threat will shift eastward into the Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys from later today into Wednesday.

The initial primary surface low pressure system will grind to a halt and weaken as it reaches the Great Lakes due to a strong blocking pattern in the atmosphere over Canada.  This will lead to the development of a secondary storm system near the east coast on Thursday resulting in widespread precipitation on Thursday in the Mid-Atlantic region.  The precipitation will likely break out in the Philly metro region in the early-to-mid morning hours on Thursday and a small accumulation of snow and/or ice is on the table for the morning commute time or shortly thereafter. Precipitation will then change to plain rain on Thursday afternoon as easterly winds bring in some low-level milder air and the winds will kick up as well. In fact, heavy rain and strong easterly winds are possible on Thursday night as the storm intensifies near the coast.

Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Arcfield Weather