Snow Possible Tuesday, Chilly Rest Of Week

This month is shaping up as not only our first month of below average temperatures since August of last year, but also, potentially, the coldest November since the late 1990s.  

Before you fret and wonder if this is the beginning of a long, cold winter of discontent, November is not necessarily a harbinger of what winter will bring.

Several cold Novembers have been followed by warm winters (2007, 1997, 1996 to name three over the last couple of decades). This November will close on the same chilled note on which it began, as temperatures for the balance of the month will average out a few degrees below normal.

Included in that chill this week is the potential for some light snow on Tuesday.

At this point, it looks likely that precipitation will fall mainly in the form of snow across southeastern Pennsylvania, as temperatures will be just cool enough to support a mostly-frozen event. The rain/snow line sets up across South Jersey and along the Delaware River, just to the city's south.

Precipitation looks to be pretty modest in terms of how much actually falls from the sky, so a winter storm this is not. Accumulations of a couple of inches of snow look likely.

Since the rain/snow line is close enough, it's possible (though not likely as of now) that there's some mixing with rain closer to the city and along the river across Bucks County. The farther north and west from the city you are, the more the odds for snow quickly increase.

After Tuesday's modest snowfall, temperatures will warm towards 50 on Saturday and into the 50s on Sunday as the cold pattern over us relaxes and a warm push of air nudges in ahead of a reinforcing cold front that crosses us for early next week.

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Tom Thunstrom is the editor and publisher of Phillyweather.net. You can also follow Phillyweather.net on twitter at @phillywx or on Facebook.