Snow, sleet then heavy rain for Saturday in Philly. ‘Significant’ snow possible next week

The city evidently was wise not to push back the Eagles’ Super Bowl celebration another day.

Snow, considerably ahead of schedule, moved into the region early Saturday afternoon, however with temperatures well above freezing in and around the city, it essentially was white rain in Philly and the nearby suburbs.

But close to 2 inches was reported in western Chester County, which was under a winter weather advisory, along with northern Montgomery and Upper Bucks Counties for snow and ice accumulations during the afternoon. Just over an inch was measured in New Hanover Township, Montgomery County.

The snow was the advance guard of a rather nasty-looking storm as the mix of snow and perhaps ice in the Philly region is forecast to transition to heavy rain, perhaps the most significant soaking the area has received in three months.

On a volatile Sunday when thunderstorms are possible, the weather service says, winds could gust to 60 mph in the afternoon.

And in what evidently was aimed as a preemptive strike against inevitable outsize rumors, on social media the National Weather Service is advising that “significant snow” is possible next week but that it isn’t remotely close to a done deal.

Snow and sleet is possible early to midafternoon Saturday, the weather service said, and it may even accumulate an inch or two north and west of the city before changing to freezing rain and then heavy rain that would continue into Sunday.

The biggest threat in the city, itself, would be sleet, said Ray Martin, a lead meteorologist at the weather service office in Mount Holly.

Any snow that fell in the afternoon likely would succumb to the growing power of the February sun, he said, and a glaze of freezing rain would be unlikely, as temperatures will be rising.

Sleet — which is refrozen precipitation that lands in frozen form, as opposed to icy rain that freezes on contact — would have a better chance of accumulating in the city than snow, which would be apt to melt.

Precipitation should turn to all rain throughout the region Saturday night and continue into Sunday as temperatures make a run at 60. Total precipitation could exceed 1.5 inches, an amount not seen yet this year as the region remains in drought conditions.

After the rain stops, it’s going to turn quite cold early next week.

The European computer model is bullish on a major snowstorm, but Martin cautions that this is by no means “a lock.”

The weather service is posting a 60% chance of snow Wednesday night and Thursday, but in the computer model world, several days is more like several months.

If it actually did happen, it would be quite a break from the pattern of a winter in which it has taken eight so-called snow events to get to 8.0 inches, which is about half of the normal to date.

As for a major snowstorm, he said, “it seems like it’s been forever since it happened.” But in this case, he said, “the potential is there.”