Snowpocalypse? Not Now.
So much for Snowmageddon. In Philadelphia, at least, the latest “storm of the century” is turning out to be a big dud.
One revised forecast this morning put expected accumulation at 1 to 3 inches of snow in Philadelphia. As late as 10 p.m. Monday, Mayor Nutter said forecasters were still expecting 6 to 10 inches for the city. It appears they were wrong.
“As snow continued to fall on much of the area overnight, it appeared that Philadelphia and the immediate suburbs would dodge major snow accumulation while parts of New Jersey still see large amounts of snow,” NBC 10 reported early this morning. “The National Weather Service geared back a Winter Storm Warning — that initially covered most of the area as the early parts of the storm struck Monday — to a Winter Weather Advisory for only Bucks, Burlington, Camden and Montgomery counties. A Blizzard Warning for Ocean County, New Jersey was wheeled back to a Winter Storm Warning early Tuesday.”
A somewhat abashed National Weather Service posted to Facebook this morning: “The science of forecasting storms, while continually improving, still can be subject to error, especially if we’re on the edge of the heavy precipitation shield. Efforts, including research, are already underway to more easily communicate that forecast uncertainty.”
Gary Szatkowski, meteorologist-in-charge for the NWS in Mount Holly, apologized on Twitter.
My deepest apologies to many key decision makers and so many members of the general public.
— Gary Szatkowski (@GarySzatkowski) January 27, 2015
You made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right, and we didn't. Once again, I'm sorry.
— Gary Szatkowski (@GarySzatkowski) January 27, 2015
Somebody who does get to spike the football? John Bolaris, of all people, who had trimmed his forecast to 2-to-4 inches by Monday night.
“Whenever you’re forecasting six inches or more of snow in the big city and it fails to happen, you disrupted livelihood and ticked off mom, dad, schools, businesses,” he wrote at Philly.com. (And Bolaris, more than most people, would know.) “To be honest, it was one of the toughest forecasting calls to make in a long time and I never had a high confidence level with this one.”
Late Monday night, Mayor Nutter announced that all city offices would be closed today, as well as all public and parochial schools — and asked Philadelphians to stay off the streets. (Follow that link for a fuller list of closures and delays expected today.) SEPTA said Regional Rail would be operating on a Saturday schedule, and hundreds of flights had been canceled at Philadelphia International Airport.
BUS: Passengers should check System Status for bus info. as detours will be lifted through the morning. http://t.co/DyqPC90vPv
— SEPTA (@SEPTA) January 27, 2015
SEPTA was preparing to un-detour its buses, but otherwise there had been no reversal in those closures as of 5:20 a.m. (We’ll update throughout the day with any changes we discover.) It’s not much of a snow, but it looks like much of Philadelphia might get a snow day anyway. No reason you can’t still go sledding, right? There is some snow on the ground, after all.