December 16th, 2007 Forecast
With a wild and crazy ride concluding with this weekend's storm we are going to see a whole family of precipitation types impacting our area. Much is still up in the air (including the soon to fall precipitation, of course) but the general sense is that our area will dodge much of the icy bullet but we should see a soggy Sunday morning instead.As precipitation starts on Saturday night and continues into Sunday, temperatures will rise throughout the overnight hours and temperatures will warm above 32 throughout much of the Philadelphia metro, with the Lehigh Valley probably at or near freezing by daybreak tomorrow morning. The biggest icing concerns will be confined to the far northern and western burbs (think Pottstown, Quakertown), Berks, the Lehigh Valley, and points north and west from that.
There could be some heavy rain early in the day in New Jersey with the developing coastal low as it tracks north up along I-95. Areas east of the low track will see a surge in temperatures and we could see a rather sharp temperature gradient between coastal New Jersey and the Poconos, with 50's at the Shore (even up by Sandy Hook) and low to mid 30's in the Poconos. The storm will rapidly intensify during the day on Sunday and move into New England, with temperatures dropping during the later afternoon hours from west to east into the 30's.
Due to the significant amount of warm air that will intrude in the middle levels of the atmosphere sleet and freezing rain are definite concerns for interior sections tonight and early tomorrow. The forecast reflects the potential for a significant amount of sleet and freezing rain north and west of the city, including the Poconos and Central Pennsylvania, which will see sleet cutting into snowfall totals.
The event should start in Philadelphia between 7 and 10 PM Saturday and end just afternoon midday on Sunday, with earlier start times west and later start times east.
With the significant amount of moisture available with this storm some minor low level flooding is possible in places as we are a good bit above normal on precipitation this month so far. This storm will be deepening and moving towards a stronger area of high pressure, which will lead to a tight pressure gradient between the low and departing high. Winds will increase on Sunday and become quite gusty late in the day.
