Here’s the Latest on What You’re Going to Wake Up To Tomorrow

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Update 10:15 p.m.: Mayor Nutter just held the day’s final press conference, saying that all city government offices will be closed Tuesday; Philadelphia’s public and parochial schools will also be shut down for the day.

“There will be no activity on the city side, as well as the school side, for tomorrow,” Nutter said.

The call was made on the National Weather Service’s most recent forecast — “as of about 10 minutes ago,” Nutter said — that the city would receive 6 to 10 inches of snow starting during the overnight hours from Monday into Tuesday.

“We are still anticipating very heavy (snowfall) activity from midnight to 7 a.m.,” Nutter said.

He asked Philadelphia residents to look out for and assist senior citizens and homeless residents. He also urged drivers to stay off the road Tuesday morning, giving snow plows a chance to do their work before traffic resumes. “If you don’t need to be out in the morning, do your best to stay in,” Nutter said.

As previously announced, trash and recycling pickup for Tuesday has been canceled.

[Original] All of the meteorologists that we’ve talked to agree: This particular winter storm has been a very hard one to predict. But here’s what we do know as of 9:30 p.m. Monday.

Snow Accumulation

These numbers are constantly changing. All evening, many snow outcome maps — including Cecily Tynan’s over at 6 ABC — had the city of Philadelphia sitting in the 6″–10″ range but very close to the border of the area to the east in the 10″–14″ range.

But now, forecasters are starting to drop those numbers. Around 9 p.m., Tynan said that the snow totals were dropping but hadn’t committed to a new range for Philadelphia. John Bolaris at WeatherSavior.com is going with a rather anticlimactic forecast for Philadelphia. As of 8:30 p.m., Bolaris is predicting a meager 2″–4″ from Atlantic City to Philadelphia to Doylestown through 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service was calling for 7″–11″ overnight in Philadelphia proper, followed by another 5″–9″ on Tuesday. But just before 9 p.m., they changed that to 4″–8″ overnight and then another 3″–7″ Tuesday.

But it’s also going to be quite windy, making any shoveling all the more uncomfortable. High temperatures aren’t expected to break the freezing point until Friday.

Weather Underground predicts 1″–3″ tonight and just 1″–3″ on Tuesday.

Schools

Most schools in the immediate area dismissed early on Monday and many, including Philadelphia public and parochial schools, have preemptively closed for tomorrow. Other districts likely won’t be making a final call on Tuesday classes until later tonight or early Tuesday morning. Check the latest at CBS Philly.

Getting Around

New Jersey is instituting a travel ban for the entire state at 11 p.m. tonight:

Latest #blizzardof2015 update: NJ is implementing a travel ban for the entire state beginning at 11pm tonight given the impending storm.

— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) January 27, 2015

All SEPTA Regional Rail trains are scheduled to operate on a Saturday schedule on Tuesday, but the Cynwyd line won’t operate at all. The Broad Street Line will run all night tonight, but no other services changes have been announced. All Market-Frankford trains will stop at all stations on Tuesday, i.e. no A/B service. All of the following bus routes were scheduled to start detours as of 8 p.m.: Routes 7, 9, 18, 19, 27, 32, 38, 48, 65, 92, 94, 95, 97, 99, 103, 107, 117, 119, 120, 124, G, H, XH, J, K, and L. These bus routes are scheduled to detour beginning at midnight: Routes 14, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 44, 46, 47, 50, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58, 70, 73, 84, 88, 108, 112, and 114. Check the latest at SEPTA.

Uber, which has in the past been criticized for ridiculously high “surge rates” during bad weather, has announced that its rates won’t increase by more than 2.9-times normal rates for the duration of Philadelphia’s official snow emergency. But just keep in mind that at a 2.9x surge, your base fare for Uber Black is over $40 — even to go two blocks.

All NJ Transit service has been suspended for all of Tuesday. PATCO says it will be running on a special snow schedule.

Amtrak hasn’t announce any suspensions in our region but says that Acela and Northeast Regional trains and the Keystone Service will operate on a less frequent schedule.

If you’re planning on flying into or out of Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday, good luck with that. As of 7:30 p.m., there were 465 cancellations on Monday and 166 delays, and for Tuesday, things are much more dismal: 4,255 cancellations at PHL. Check the latest at the airport.

City Services

Except for essential personnel, city offices and courts are officially closed tomorrow.

The Philadelphia Streets Department will not pick up trash on Tuesday and is asking all residents to hold their trash until next Tuesday. This also applies to you if your trash was scheduled to be picked up on Monday but wasn’t. You’ll have to hold on to it until next Tuesday.

Follow our Twitter traffic and weather list below for additional updates.

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