Philly About to Be Walloped With a Holiday Storm
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The National Weather Service just let us know it’s going to get messy Wednesday — right about the time you’ll want to be traveling over the river and through the woods for a Thanksgiving holiday away from home.
NWS (full briefing below):
Portions of the Winter Storm Watch have been upgraded to a Warning over parts of eastern Pennsylvania and northern NJ. The Winter Storm Watch for Wednesday continues elsewhere over southeastern Pennsylvania and the northern half of New Jersey.
Impacts: Wet, heavy snow in the north. Heavy rain in the south. Gusty winds everywhere. Land and air travel will be negatively impacted Wednesday and Wednesday night just before a major holiday. Power outages are likely with the combination of gusty winds and snow hanging on wires and tree limbs. Storm timing has sped up. High impact weather will be moving into the region by daybreak Wednesday.
Let’s hear more about the snow!
Snowfall amounts of 2 to 5 inches are possible to the northwest of the Interstate 95 corridor, with 5 to 10 inches expected further inland and over the higher terrain, particularly in the southern Poconos and northwest New Jersey.
Precipitation from this event will negatively impact the busy holiday travel period Wednesday into Wednesday night. Because of the high volume of holiday traffic, travel plans completed by 7 AM
Wednesday morning would avoid most of the trouble from this event, particularly north and west
of the I-95 corridor.The combination of strong, gusty winds with snow clinging to wires and branches could compromise
electric lines…especially in the Lehigh Valley, southern Poconos, and northern New Jersey.
The system is expected to drop up to a foot of snow in the Poconos and up to five inches in the Philadelphia area, according to NBC10 First Alert Chief Meteorologist Glenn Schwartz.
While Glenn doesn’t expect much ice to accumulate on roads, he’s still warning drivers traveling Wednesday to be wary.
“I don’t expect any ice of any significance,” Glenn said. “Early season storms and late season storms can sometimes change from heavy rain to snow in a matter of minutes. People need to be alert and monitor any changes.”
6ABC offers some friendly advice:
Given the importance of Wednesday as an extremely busy travel day, as well as the potential for compromised travel conditions, it would be best to plan on traveling early in the morning or later at night after the precipitation is over. Wednesday afternoon will be the worst time for travel.
