The January-like conditions, with temperatures in the 30s and a biting northwest wind, are expected to continue today. And the outlook for the next two weeks calls for below-normal temperatures for virtually the entire country.

The long-range forecasts have been calling for wintry chill to set in early - but not quite this early.

Yesterday, the official temperature in Philadelphia failed to get above 40 for a fourth consecutive day, the first such streak to occur so early in the season in 75 years. It's been so cold that ski resort operators in the Poconos are planning to open unusually early, with some open already.

The "trace" of snow measured on Tuesday in Philadelphia tied a record for the date, and yesterday's inch was the most on record for a Nov. 21, which indicates that it doesn't snow very much here in November. That inch also was exactly one inch more than fell during the entire month of January 2008.

In most areas, the snow was splendidly decorative, whitening the tree tops like powdered sugar on funnel cake, and merely moistening blacktops and walkways. The notable exception was a narrow corridor through Chester and Delaware Counties where heavy snow bands stuck, causing serious tie-ups along such busy roads as Routes 202, 30 and 100.

"I've never seen a band like that, that it was concentrated in one section," said Nick Martino, the maintenance director for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's Philadelphia region. "It was amazing to me."

Brian Gordon learned the hard way that West Whiteland Township, where 4.5 inches of snow was reported, was in the bull's-eye.

When Gordon, the township's assistant public-works director, left his house in Collegeville, Montgomery County, the snow amounts were negligible. "I looked out the window; I had a dusting," he said. In the northern suburbs and across South Jersey, totals typically were an inch or less.

The snow was so wimpy up his way that Gordon opted to drive his Honda to work instead of his four-wheel-drive vehicle, a decision he regretted. The roads worsened when he reached Uwchlan Township, and then what is usually a five-minute drive on Route 113 turned into a 30-minute ordeal.

Fortunately, he said, township crews were out treating the roads by 7 a.m., and most of those roads were in decent shape.

The busier state roads were another story. Martino said the rush-hour volume was a challenge for his trucks: "The traffic starts building up, and it was rough to get through."

Aware of forecasts calling for the possibility of an inch or less of snow, PennDot crews were salting before the snow began, Martino said. However, the snow fell heavily enough after daybreak to create an icy sheen on some roads.

The hefty amounts were a surprise, said Raymond Kruzdlo, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service forecast office in Mount Holly. He said it was a forecasting problem similar to that of trying to pinpoint the location of a severe thunderstorm.

"You do the best you can with the state of the science," he said. "That's the nature of the beast."

No more significant snow is on the horizon, and the chill should ease a bit next week. However, it appears that another cold spell will set in after Thanksgiving. In these troubled economic times, Garry Graham says, that's not an entirely bad thing for him. Graham is a senior vice president at Burlington Coat Factory, the New Jersey firm that is one of the nation's biggest outerwear retailers.

"We've had times when a cold front swept through," he recalled, "and we had unbelievable increases in volume."