January 19th and 20th, 2008 Forecast
This afternoon into this evening: Sunshine and pleasant wintertime temperatures in the low and mid 40's are being accompanied by a west wind at 15-25 mph which is doing wonders to a good chunk of the snowcover over Southeastern PA today. Unfortunately you won't get to enjoy the mild temperatures for long as a sharp cold front moves through the region late in the day on Saturday. Expect temperatures to top out in the mid to upper 40's before the end of Friday, falling back into the 30's during the dinner hour with diminishing winds.Tonight: Temperatures will drop to the mid and upper 20's under variably cloudy skies. While skies should be clear for a good bit of the evening clouds will be on the increase later tonight.
Saturday's weather will feature a few periods of sunshine, especially over the western and northern areas of the region, before clouds increase as the cold front presses eastward. From Philadelphia on south and east, the developing southern storm will spread a canopy of clouds up into South Jersey and Delaware and the result should be a mainly cloudy sky. Flurries are possible tomorrow afternoon with the front before it passes through and over South Jersey and Delaware you could see a steadier period of light snow.As far as accumulations are concerned there could be scattered areas of coating-one inch type accumulations if heavier snow showers break out with the cold front. I don't expect this to be widespread but if we see more sunshine early in the day Saturday this is something that is possible during the afternoon. Temperatures will be in the mid 30's to around 40 in the area for high temperatures.
Sunday will feature a hit of cold air with gusty northwest winds. Despite there being a good chunk of sunshine during the day, winds at 15-25 mph from the northwest combined with temperatures in the 20's will result in wind chills in the teens to around 20 degrees. You should wake up on Sunday to temperatures in the 18-23 range region-wide.
The pattern going into next week will generally be cooler than normal with temperatures in the 30's nearly every day. A chance of flurries or light snow with a weak clipper disturbance is possible on Tuesday and another reinforcing shot of cold air is possible on Thursday, also accompanied with more flurries.The Cause Of Big Snow...Flakes: You may have seen some big snowflakes last night during the surprise snowfall in our region. The cause of big snowflakes is air that is slightly above freezing in a small portion of the atmosphere. This causes the flakes to partially melt, with the liquid layer on the outside of the flake allowing the snow to stick together in larger flakes.
How Cold For Green Bay? Computer guidance is suggesting a high temperature in Green Bay on Sunday of 5 degrees, which is what the National Weather Service (via Weatherunderground) is also forecasting for Green Bay. That's not going to be the coldest temperatures around on Sunday but it's plenty cold for NFL playoff football. The honor for coldest weather may go to Tower, Minnesota, which is forecast for highs in the teens below zero on Sunday. Wind chill values in their neck of the woods are expected to drop to as low as -55 at the height of the cold. Temperatures in suburban Boston on Sunday for the Patriots-Chargers should be in the low 20's with wind chill values in the single digits above zero, not much worse than what we will deal with.
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