The sunshine and relatively mild weather on Christmas in the Philadelphia region and South Jersey will likely be long gone by Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service said in its forecast on Thursday.
Snow, likely no more than 1 or 2 inches, is expected to accumulate between 1 p.m. and midnight Friday, and become mixed with sleet and freezing rain after 4 p.m. New snow and sleet of 2 to 4 inches is possible between 1 and 4 a.m. on Saturday, forecasters said.
“The heaviest precipitation will be the late afternoon on Friday, and it will start to wind down on Saturday,” said Nick Guzzo, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
Temperatures are expected to range from the high 20s to low 30s both days. A mild wind of 5 to 10 mph is also expected.
Due to the forecast, PennDot is urging drivers to avoid unnecessary travel. The agency expects vehicle restrictions to begin at 10 a.m. Friday on all interstate highways, banning school buses, commercial buses, motor coaches, motorcycles, and many types of commercial vehicles from the roads.
Friday could be the second measurable snowfall of the season so far. A storm that swept across the Philadelphia region on Dec. 14 left 4.2 inches of snow at Philadelphia International Airport. Some suburban communities in Bucks and Chester Counties reported more than 8 inches.
Philadelphia is unlikely tohave a white Christmas, but snow is on the horizon for the weekend.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday afternoon issued a winter storm watch for much for eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The watch will be in effect from Friday afternoon through Saturday morning.
From Friday into Friday evening, forecasters are “near 100% confident” that most of the Philly area will get some form of winter precipitation, according tothe National Weather Service. But exactly what type of precipitation, how much, and the precise timing remains uncertain.
“We’re likely going to see an impactful winter storm,” said Eric Hoeflich, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
Philadelphia may get between 1 and 4 inches of snow Friday into the night, according to the National Weather Service. Light precipitation could linger into Saturday morning.
Forecasters expect between 1 and 3 inches of precipitation in northern Delaware, far southern New Jersey, and Southeastern Pennsylvania. Eastern Pennsylvania and much of New Jersey may see 4 to 7 inches. Actual precipitation totals and types, however, may vary. Some areas could get snow, sleet, freezing rain, or plain rain depending on temperatures and timing.
Ahead of the expected weekend storm, Philadelphians are unlikely to be greeted with snow-dusted streets on Christmas morning.
After sun and high temperatures in the 40s on Wednesday, Christmas Day may also bring above-average temperatures, with highs forecast in the mid-40s and a potential for light showers in the morning.
It will be “not great weather, but not bad either for late December,” according to forecasts from the National Weather Service.
Friday’s winter weather event would mark the second measurable snowfall of the season in Philly. The snowstorm that swept across the Philadelphia region on Dec. 14 dumped 4.2 inches of snow at Philadelphia International Airport. Some suburban communities in Bucks and Chester Counties recorded over 8 inches.
If you’re planning to travel on Friday evening, expect impacts to your plans, as roads may get snowy and icy.
Philadelphia might have mild weather this holiday week, with light rain showers and likely no snow on Christmas. However, more people will be on the roads and in the sky, traveling to holiday destinations, than in recent years.
Holiday weather should be much milder this week, despite earlier forecasts calling for snow Monday evening, said Ray Martin, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly. Monday and Tuesday have a chance for light rain showers, and if temperatures drop, maybe snow, but there should be little to no snow accumulation.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the Northeast will be warmer, drier days for travel, according to AccuWeather. Millions across the South and Midwest will experience the warmest holiday on record, though.
Whether it’s the expected good weather or people getting their post-COVID travel confidence back, roads and airports are expected to be packed this week, according to data from Philadelphia International Airport and INRIX, a national travel analytics firm.
Winter coats are out on a cold morning at a bus stop at 15th and Market Streets on Dec. 15.
Holiday weather this week in Philadelphia
While no snow will likely fall on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day in the Philadelphia region, Tuesday and Friday have chances for precipitation that could bring rain and ice to Philadelphia, and possibly snow north of the city, said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tyler Roys.
Monday: The best weather this week. Warmer, drier, and less windy.
Tuesday: Rain showers in Philadelphia during the morning commute, but no snow. Possible rain, sleet, or snow in Montgomery and Bucks Counties. Lehigh Valley could receive an inch or more of snow.
Wednesday: No precipitation, but expect wind gusts up to 30 mph. The evening is expected to bring lots of cloud coverage. “Rudolph will definitely need his red nose out and about,” Roys said.
Thursday: Misty weather or light rain scattered across the region throughout the day.
Friday: Stormy weather with precipitation. Philadelphia has a chance for rain and possible ice, but Upper Bucks County and the Lehigh Valley could get snow.
The weekend: On Saturday and Sunday temperatures are forecast to range from the mid-30s to 50 degrees, with a slight wind. Rain is possible Sunday.
The scene at the TSA checkpoint line in Terminal B at Philadelphia International Airport on Nov. 9.
Holiday travel in the Philadelphia region
Expect longer travel times this year as more people hit the road and sky to get to their holiday destinations.
Airports and flying
Philadelphia International Airport will see a 5% increase in the number of travelers this week compared to the same period last year, with more than 1 million people expected to come through the airport from Wednesday to Sunday, Jan. 4.
PHL’s heaviest traveling days:
Friday, Dec. 26: 94,028 expected passengers
Monday, Dec. 29: 93,096 expected passengers
Saturday, Dec. 27: 92,954 expected passengers
Travelers should arrive two hours before their flight to ensure they get to their gate on time, said Heather Redfern, an airport spokesperson. PHL also has an online travel tips guide for more guidance on easier travel.
The Inquirer operates a year-end PHL tracker for up-to-date information on airport delays and airline performance.
Traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway on Oct. 26.
Driving and peak travel times
A large portion of the holiday travel already occurred this past weekend, but the increased holiday traffic continues.
Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve historically see lower vehicle traffic as people have reached their holiday destinations, according to INRIX. However, Friday is expected to be busy as travelers make their post-Christmas Day moves. “But, remember, crashes or severe weather could create unexpected delays,“ their year-end report warns.
Best travel times for driving in Philadelphia
Most of the traffic congestion this week will come after Christmas Day, with Friday being the busiest, INRIX reports.
To avoid peak traffic, drivers should steer clear of the roads on Monday and Tuesday, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. The best time to travel on those days is before 10 a.m.
Wednesday, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day will have minimal traffic impact, according to INRIX.
The following days will have some of the busiest roads all year: From Friday to Sunday, the worst travel times will be from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. To avoid congestion, drivers should leave for their destinations before 11 a.m.
With a predictable precision that may forever elude meteorology, at 10:03 a.m. Philadelphia time Sunday, the sun will beam its most direct light of the year on the Tropic of Capricorn and the astronomical winter will begin in the Northern Hemisphere.
Sunday indeed is going to be the shortest day of 2025, with just over nine hours and 23 minutes between sunrise and sunset.
On the bright side for those who have about had their quotas of premature darkness, the day length would be a mere one second shorter than Saturday’s, and on Monday, we gain two more seconds. On the dark side, Sunday’s sunset is a full three minutes earlier than that of Dec. 12. (And don’t ask about sunrise.)
Whether the brightness would be enhanced by snow cover is another matter: Meteorology has a long way to go to catch up to astronomy in terms of predictability.
In the early going, Philly is more than halfway to last winter — with 4.2 inches of snow, vs. 8.1 for the entire winter of 2024-25.
In the short term, this is a peak time for a perennial question.
Is it going to be a white Christmas?
“No” almost always is a safe answer in Philly, and all along the Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston. And “no” it is this year, says Bob Larsen, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc.
With a white Christmas defined as an inch of snow on the ground at Philadelphia International Airport on Dec. 25, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officially posts about a 1-in-10 chance that it will happen in any given year in Philly.
So why the fascination? Blame Irving Berlin, composer of “White Christmas,” and Bing Crosby, who crooned the most famous version, but probably a bigger impetus was the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” published in 1823 and credited to Clement Moore.
The poem cast Santa Claus as personally delivering gifts via his sleigh. This predated Amazon Prime. That pretty well cemented the Christmas/snow relationship.
Philly gets most of its major bigger snowstorms from nor’easters, which tap the moisture of the Atlantic Ocean. The onshore winds can also import warm air from the ocean, and this time of year ocean temperatures still are well into the 40s. That’s why snow changes to rain so often around here early in the winter. It takes time for the ocean and the snow-making upper atmosphere to cool, and the snow season peaks in late January into February.
It was so unbelievable that the record wasn’t verified officially until four years later, after NOAA commissioned a federal investigation. It turned out that the snow was not actually measured, but inferred from the liquid content of the melted snow and the air temperatures.
The investigators — David Robinson, the Rutgers University professor who is the longtime New Jersey state climatologist and an international snow authority, and Jon Nese, who then was the Franklin Institute meteorologist — affirmed the total.
They concluded that the snow reports in neighboring towns were close enough to support PHL’s.
Snow is a weighty matter
Large snowflakes fall as pedestrians make their way in Center City. Flakes come various shapes and sizes … and weights.
In the standard language used by the National Weather Service and commercial outfits, that certainly qualified as a “heavy” snowfall.
However, when temperatures are close to freezing as they were last Sunday, the snow has a higher liquid content and is thus heavier. On Sunday, 5 inches may have felt more like 8 to the average shovel. That’s heavy snow.
When it’s cold, as it was on Jan. 7, 1996 — temperatures were in the teens during the day — the flakes are way drier. The ratio for the storm was closer to 20-1, and overall the flakes were a whole lot lighter.
“Heavy” snow “applies to visibility ratios,” said Jim Eberwine, longtime meteorologist with the National Weather Service local offices, adding it might be time to reconsider the use of that adjective.
“Some things should be updated,” he said.
How about: Snowfall rates can be intense at times?
Snow: It’s a Northern Hemisphere thing
It’s Janaury in the Miami of South America, Punta del Este, Uruguay. It doesn’t snow much there in their winter either.
The solstice also marks the beginning of the astronomical summer in the Southern Hemisphere, so residents south of the equator probably won’t be using snowblowers for the next several months.
In fact, they won’t be seeing a whole lot of snow there during the winter. It snows robustly in the Andes and other mountain regions, but not in major population centers, the AccuWeather people note.
NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information doesn’t bother to track snow cover in the Southern Hemisphere, for a couple of reasons, including that it’s 80% covered by climate-moderating water.
Plus its major cities are located at latitudes where snow is scarce.
How much for Philly this winter?
The Butler family finds a (small) hill to sled on in Wallworth Park in Cherry Hill after last Sunday’s snowfall. The 4.2 inches meashred in Philly was more than half of what fell all last winter.
Making seasonal snow forecasts in this region isn’t quite like picking lottery numbers, but reasonably close. Seasonal totals have varied from 78.7 inches in 2009-10 to nothing in 1972-73. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center doesn’t touch the stuff.
The guesses for this year are in, and here is a partial list with what’s out there: The “normal” season total is 23.1 inches.
Thousands of households in Philadelphia’s collar counties remained without power a day after wind gusts downed trees and caused hundreds of electrical outages throughout the region.
More than 2,230 customers, mostly in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties, still did not have electric service as of Saturday evening, according to Peco.
Nearly half the outages were due to fallen trees and branches interfering with electrical systems, Peco spokesperson Tom Brubaker said Saturday afternoon. As a result, suburban counties saw far more outages than Philly, he said.
Winds registered as high as 62 mph Friday afternoon. Around 7 p.m., a pine tree fell on a Chestnut Hill apartment, CBS3 reported, while in Roxborough, a tree fell on a vehicle, sending two people to the hospital.
Temperatures plummeted into the 20s Friday night, and, according to Brubaker, about 80,000 homes lost power.
Crews faced challenges from the weather, with wind gusts frequently topping 40 mph, Brubaker said.
“When wind gusts are that high, we can’t take our bucket trucks to repair lines,” he said.
An additional 135 Peco employees from Virginia and North Carolina have traveled to the region to assist in the recovery, Brubaker said.
He said he expected most of the remaining outages to be resolved by Saturday evening, though “a few rural, isolated customers” may face longer waits.
What’s left of the season’s first snowfall is all but gone with the wind — and the heftiest rains since October. And having done its best to disrupt Friday’s morning commute, the weather evidently is executing an afternoon encore.
After backing off for a few hours, the winds came back with a vengeance Friday afternoon. A thunderstorm gust of 62 mph was recorded at Philadelphia International Airport at 2:35 p.m.
The weather service’s wind advisory for the entire region remains in effect until 1 a.m. Saturday, and conspiring with snow melt to saturate the soils, SEPTA is particularly concerned about the potential for uprooted trees along its Regional Rail lines, said media relations director Andrew Busch.
“The recipe for problems is there,” he said. “We will have crews stationed across the system to respond quickly.”
Peco heard the rumors, and while the utility is “not expecting impacts, we’re going to continue to monitor conditions,“ said Candice Womer, senior communications specialist.
The deciduous trees are mostly bare, so winds can sail through branches that are not weighed down with leaves, but the weather service advises that “some power outages” are possible.
About 16,500 outages were reported at midafternoon.
An additional concern was the predicted wind shift during the day, from southerly in the morning to westerly in the afternoon, and how that might stress vulnerable trees, Womer said.
The strongest winds will occur during the afternoon
The gusts are likely to be “widespread” during the afternoon, said Paul Fitzsimmons, a lead meteorologist at the weather service’s Mount Holly office. That would be after the rain-producing front crosses through the region and winds become westerly, peaking in time for the afternoon commute. Gusts to 50 mph are possible.
Rain totals in the Philly area are expected to be in the 1-to-1.5-inch range, Fitzsimmons said.
Water levels are so low that computer models show only about a 10% chance of streams reaching even the preflood “action” phase.
In the interagency U.S. Drought Monitor map posted Thursday morning, most of Philadelphia, adjacent South Jersey, and Chester County were in the “severe drought” category, along with portions of Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties.
Most of Pennsylvania and New Jersey were in at least “abnormally dry” conditions.
The forecast for the weekend
After the winds die down Friday evening, the region should be in for a dry but chilly weekend.
Temperatures during the day Friday are forecast to dive from a high in the 50s in the morning to the 30s by nightfall, and they won’t get out of the 30s on Saturday.
Sunday’s forecast high in the mid-40s would be close to normal for the date.
That icy glaze that has appeared on streets, sidewalks, and driveways this week reappeared Wednesday and will make an encore Thursday morning as water continues to ooze from the snowpack by day and freeze at night.
So-called black ice — ice that masquerades as harmless wetness — is especially dangerous, officials warn, and conditions are ripe for a harvest, given the generous snowpacks.
“Refreezing and black ice are definitely a concern,” said PennDOT spokesperson Brad Rudolph. “We will continue to treat areas as needed.”
SEPTA advised commuter to watch out for ice on platforms, walkways, and in parking lots.
Temperatures early Wednesday fell into the teens throughout the region — save for Philadelphia International Airport where the low was 26 — and on Thursday are due to drop into the 20s region-wide.
But along with that winter landscape, the atmosphere over the region is going to undergo radical changes by the end of the workweek, forecasters say, with a rapid but short-lived warmup, and something that’s been missing around here lately — a soaking rain.
As for more snow, the atmospheric scientists are saying it’s probably safe to put away the shovels for a while, and not just in the Philly region.
“In my opinion, cold looks hard to come by for most of the United States through the remainder of December,” said Amy Butler, research scientist at the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory.
In short, prepare for a more typical Philadelphia December.
“With the pattern changing, we’re kind of getting closer to where we should be this time of year,” said Mike Lee, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly.
The forecast for the rest of the week
Wednesday should be at least partially sunny with some substantial melting as temperatures are due to crack 40 degrees by early afternoon.
Then after one more overnight with readings dropping into the melt-freezing 20s, Thursday is forecast to become the first day with above-normal temperatures in Philadelphia since the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
As temperatures rise through the 40s, several hours of soaking rain are forecast to begin in the early evening with the potential for up to an inch.
Throughout the region the snowpack contains about a half inch of water that will be heading to local storm sewers and local waterways, said the weather service’s Lee.
In addition to the rain, the high moisture content of the air is one of nature’s most-efficient snow-removal tools. When warm, moist air comes in contact with snow, it gives off a latent heating effect that accelerates melting.
“We’ll have to watch for the possibility of some localized flooding,” said Paul Dorian, a meteorologist with Arcfield Weather.
For now, Lee said, the weather service isn’t contemplating flood advisories. Precipitation the last 90 days has been substantially below normal throughout the region, and a drought warning remains in effect for New Jersey.
The outlook for the weekend and beyond
Friday’s forecast high in the mid-50s is likely to occur in the early morning hours, and then temperatures are forecast to crash, with wind gusts to 40 mph possible.
Saturday is expected to be dry but chilly, with readings in the low 40s, warmer than it’s been but still several degrees below normal, and in the mid-40s Sunday, closer to the long-term averages.
The polar vortex, the persistent low pressure system that spins around the Arctic and confines the cold air to the ice box of the planet, has been strengthening, said Butler.
It’s possible that it would undergo “stretching” and allow cold air to sink into parts of the contiguous United States, but “it’s not a signal that is very robust,” she said.
For now, she said no obvious dominant feature is emerging that would define the winter.
La Niña conditions continue in the tropical Pacific, where vast expanses of the sea surfaces are about a degree below normal. La Niña can have powerful effects on west-to-east winds that ferry weather to the United States.
In this case, however, La Niña is currently weak, meaning that its influence over global seasonal patterns is also weak, said Emily Becker, scientist with the University of Miami/Cooperative Institute for Marine & Atmospheric Studies.
For now, it would be prudent to savor what’s left of the snow cover, and it wouldn’t hurt to spread a little sand or gravel on the driveway or the front steps before going to bed.
What have become the glacial remnants of a picturesque and a meteorologically unusual snowfall that tufted the trees and bushes with a cottony whiteness are likely to stay around for a few more days.
In what has been quite a chilly December, with not a single day of above-normal temperatures, readings tumbled into the teens for the second consecutive morning on Tuesday and not make it out of freezing in the afternoon.
Expect more ice and stealth “black ice,” re-frozen snow melt that forms on driveways, sidewalks and other surfaces, again Wednesday morning.
But if you’re getting tired of salting and chipping ice after those overnight freeze-ups, you’re about to get some help.
A warm-up is forecast to get underway Wednesday, and come Thursday, which is slated to be the warmest day since before Thanksgiving, the atmosphere is expected to train its snow-removal guns on the region.
Forecasters see a surge of snow-erasing warmth and a significant — and badly needed — rainfall Thursday night that should restore the landscape to a condition more familiar to Philadelphians and ease precipitation deficits.
As for the prospects of a winter-wonderland encore, nothing is on the horizon in the near term, said Nick Guzzo, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
Said Matt Benz, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc, “For folks looking for more snow, this might have been it.”
At least for now and perhaps until after Christmas, or later. But, “Winter’s not done yet,” Benz said.
Willow, a West Highland, is with Amanda and David York on a walk in Maria Barnaby Greenwald Memorial Park in Cherry Hill on Sunday morning.
The warmup in Philly is expected to be brief
Temperatures could go as high as 55 degrees Thursday, Benz said. Then after a cold front passes through, temperatures will fall during the day Friday.
This won’t be an Arctic front like the one that gave Philly its coldest day of the season on Monday, with a high of 28. However, the forecasts call for readings to be no higher than the 30s on Saturday, and mid-40s on Sunday, which is close to the longer-term normal high, followed by several degrees chillier on Monday.
What’s expected for the next two weeks
In its updated extended outlooks on Monday, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center had just about the entire country with above-normal temperatures through Dec. 29, with a notable exception — the Northeast, including Philadelphia.
Predicted upper-air conditions in the Arctic and the North Atlantic would argue against above-normal temperatures around here during the period, climate center forecaster Thomas Collow said.
Regardless of what happens the rest of the way, the winter of 2025-26 will be snowier than at least seven others in the period of snow records that date to the winter of 1884-85.
The 4.2 inches measured officially at Philadelphia International Airport Sunday is a half-inch above the long-term average for the season to date.
Granted almost any substantial snowfall would seem exceptional these days around here, but this one truly was, said the weather service’s Zach Cooper, a meteorologist in the Mount Holly office.
Most of Philly’s significant snows are the result of coastal storms that mine moist air from the ocean.
That wasn’t the case Sunday.
”In some ways it was a bit of a unique situation for us, especially to get the amounts that we did,” he said.
The snow was generated by a weak “clipper system,” a storm that dives out of southwestern Canada and usually has minor impacts around here, and a disturbance in the upper atmosphere.
Totals generally ranged from 4 to 8 inches across the region. Totals were less around the city in part because temperatures took their good, old time dropping below freezing.
Marginal temperatures also were a factor in the spread of accumulations. They added some extra weight and heft to the flakes that glommed on the branches and what remains of the foliage with tenacity.
While the show will have a limited run, the region learned anew that snow and ice may be a pain, but nothing decorates like nature.
The Philadelphia region’s first snowfall of the season ended up having quite a March-like quality.
Totals generally ranged from 4 to 8 inches, but the snow literally was so heavy that the average shoveler may have had a hard time discerning the difference.
“When I was shoveling my car out, it felt rough,” said Michael Silva, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly. Silva lives in Mount Laurel, where an unofficial 7 inches was reported.
The snow was so weighty because it had a high liquid content, the result of temperatures close to the freezing mark, as so often happens in March. The borderline temperatures also would help explain the range in accumulations, he said.
The snow glommed onto the trees, weighing down branches. In fact it took down a branch outside the Mount Holly office that damaged a federal car (sorry, taxpayers).
The highest amounts, just over 8 inches, were recorded in Chester and Bucks Counties.
Officially, at Philadelphia International Airport, where temperatures didn’t get below freezing until midmorning Sunday, 4.2 inches was measured.
By contrast, Boston has measured only 3.1 inches so far.
Here are the snowfall totals posted by the weather service as of 10 a.m. Monday.
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All cases and hearings in Philadelphia Courts, both in-person and virtual, scheduled for Monday will be held two hours later than originally scheduled.
Trash and recycling pickup remain unaffected and operating on their regular schedule.
Bitter cold temperatures hit the region last night, allowing many of the roads locals use to commute to work to get icy overnight. The region saw snowfall totals ranging from 4.2 inches at the Philadelphia International Airport to 7 or 8 inches in some suburbs, said Alex Staarmann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
The Office of Emergency Management urged travelers to use caution on sidewalks and roads. “Cold temperatures can create refreeze and black ice conditions and high wind gusts can cause blowing snow and reduce visibility while driving,” the office said in a statement. Drivers can check road conditions at 511pa.com.
The Office of Homeless Services has declared an “Enhanced Cold Blue,” opening warming centers for anyone to visit. Extra outreach teams will engage with people they see living or sleeping outdoors. Find a warming center using the city’s online map tool.
Severe cold can negatively impact your health and home. The Office of Emergency Management has shared an online guide on bracing for the cold weather and protecting your household.
