Thursday is a reminder that winter is far from over in southeastern Pennsylvania, as a cold north wind takes over, blowing clouds in, reminiscent of many recent dismal December days.
There is a chance of snow on Saturday and there’s a brief detour into even colder weather next week, according to the forecast.
The temperature usually rises when the sun comes up, but not on Thursday.
At Philadelphia International Airport the mercury fell 8 degrees from 5 a.m. to noon. At Reading Regional Airport, the decline was 10 over a period starting a couple hours earlier. In Allentown, it was an 8-degree drop.
That decline is expected to continue into the low 20s at PHL by daybreak Friday, and to 20 degrees at RDG and a little colder at LVI about the same time.
Friday should be normal in terms of the usual temperature progression, warming to the mid-30s at least, according to AccuWeather.
The chance of snow is Saturday before warmer air moves in, pushing the temperature to a high of about 40 degrees. Little to no accumulation is expected south in Delaware County, but a coating to an inch is in the AccuWeather forecast north in Berks County, and a slight bit more farther north.
Overcast and breezy is the call on Sunday, with the mercury struggling to reach the freezing mark. Arctic air is expected to roll in overnight, knocking down the temperature to about 20 degrees north and south by dawn Monday.
A couple of days of sunny conditions are expected to open the workweek, with the temperature plunging when the sun goes down, bottoming out near 10 degrees.
There is snow in the forecast for Friday the 23rd, with AccuWeather suggesting 2 to 3 inches north, with rain turning to ice south.
The 23rd is the 10th anniversary of a blockbuster storm, in many places the second highest snowfall on record, not to be confused with the storm of January 1996, the record holder in most places in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Neither of those storms were technically “blizzards.” They were simply heavy snowfalls.
Through the first two weeks of the month, Philadelphia International’s average temperature was 38.8 degrees, 4.4 above normal, with Reading Regional at 35.9 degrees, 4.5 above normal. In the Lehigh Valley, it was 33.3 degrees, 2.7 above normal.
At those locations, last month ended at 35.0 degrees, 31.7 and 29.0, respectively.
And what a difference a year makes, a frigid January 2025 ended at 30.4 degrees, 27.5 and 25.2, respectively.