21chuck

Here in south philly near the Italian market it has been steady snow since about 3 pm. Steady moderate to heavy snow since maybe 6 pm? However virtually no accumulation. Got a thin crust on the grill and some, but not all, cars. Don't even have a thermometer but it seems like it's a couple degrees over freezing. Great set up in terms of this band of snow that's been parked overhead, but temps simply too warm. Very pretty to watch fall though!

Very similar situation just west of Center City right now.

The sad thing about this pattern is that everybody in the country has been losing (if you don't like drought, that is). From the Inquirer: "The U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday classified more than 85% of the country as “abnormally dry,” the highest percentage since it began keeping track in 2000."

Can someone explain what is happening? This seems like a dry spell completely without precedent. I am from the central part of Northern California originally and this is exactly how August-October might look out there. Honestly a bit drier than it would be out there. Who is getting the precip in this pattern? New Mexico?

You might get a better answer to your question asking at weatherwest.com Edit: or faster answer

Seems like 4-5" in my back patio in the Italian Market area of South Philly. 6.5" when you add what already fell with the storm earlier this week. Feels like Mt Holly really nailed it - wonder if anyone could tell me what they saw that no one else could? It was really a perfect snow day - snowed for all daylight hours, was mostly windless, stuck to everything, no dry slot, no threat of mixing. Beautiful day!

Steady moderate to heavy snow in south philly, I feel like rates are easily exceeding what radar would suggest.

Something beautiful happening right now. Coming down heavy in south philly Wish I could upload the gif I have of this band strengthening right over head

Didn't snap any photos or take any measurements this time but I can confirm that in south philly this was basically just a white rain event despite ~12 hours of continuous light to moderate snowfall. The banding actually set up quite nicely for us overall. I woke up around sunrise to a coating of snow on the coldest surfaces like grass and cars. And then as the day went on it felt like the more the snow fell from the sky the less snow there was on the ground. Now there's just a spotty coating on select shaded surfaces. It was just too warm during the event and the ground was so warm to begin with.

I wasn't home but got up to maybe an inch or half inch across the river in university city so somewhere in that ballpark.

I live in south philly near the Italian market. I have a back patio that is pretty well wind protected (I know wind had a major impact on folks ability to measure elsewhere). My set up/technique is perhaps not the most sophisticated. I have a plastic bin that is maybe 20"x30" and I turned it upside down and I measured when the snow concluded noon Saturday and got 6 inches on the dot. I feel pretty good about that reading. It didnt include anything that fell Friday morning since that had all melted by sunset. Photo demonstrates the set up haha. Measured the bin on the right. Edit: to be clear photo was taken a few hours before my measurement

Was just having this exact same thought. Measured exactly 6" inches in my back patio plus had maybe a half inch from yesterday's snow. Right inside their 4-11 call for my area. They stood their ground in the face of some significant fluctuations in the last second modeling.

You can see the difference between areas that are wind exposed and not just looking at the top of this tree! Light snow coming down in south philly. I measure 5 inches exactly in my very wind protected back patio. It's a very pretty snow!

So did the double barrel low not really happen or did it consolidate west?

Sorry meant to include sticking to all surfaces. Maybe half inch or so so far. Snow is moderate. Not sure how best to upload a photo taken from my phone. Seems it's always too large

Banding has set up nicely over Philly as radar appears to be filling in north of us.

Most of the local mets seem pretty bullish and after the very mixed 12Z runs (and meh 18Z NAM), NWS still slightly upped storm totals for my area to 5-11 in. I find it reassuring.

This thread is such a pleasant break from the NYC metro's thread for this event... all the same content without *most of the mayhem. Has also been steady light snow for over 4 hours now in University City.

I am looking at this chart and can't even remember these warmer days. Certainly felt like an anomolous number of days *with highs in the 30s and 20s to me. Average is skewed a bit by the extreme warmth in the start of the month.

Ya I understand it's been La Nina. I guess overall it's been an average La Nina January? Although the blocking in the West has been so strong even Washington has looked pretty dry

I am wondering who the current pattern has favored this January? The west has been completely dry. Family in Chicago report very little snow on the season. And we've been cold but without the ingredients necessary to reliably produce good storms. So who in north america has been doing well in terms of snow this winter? Maybe Alaska?

Yes wunderground gave me false hope. Should have known this set up was guaranteed to deliver almost nothing. Light flakes for about 50 minutes thus far (and obviously no accumulation) in south philly. Back end rapidly approaching.

Really couldn't be a better track for all the folks DC -> Boston that got screwed with this last one. One can dream... Btw some flakes in west philly right now with the wrap around showers

Agreed - that's always been the silver lining to this as a more coastal person

Props to all of you who stayed up through the night! I just rolled around restlessly in bed forcing myself to not check my phone or look outside for fear of not getting back to sleep. Maybe 3.5 inches in south philly