Emily Babay's "biggest snow" list about sums up the winter. Once again, the Jan. 25 freakish event has held off all challengers and remains No. 1 for the season at 1.5 inches.
We would not rule out further challenges, however, even though nothing is in the extended forecast into early next week.
The block in the North Atlantic won't go away, and although logic and experienced meteorologists agree that it will break down and that we will experience some compensatory warmth eventually, the Climate Prediction Center outlook has below-normal temperatures for much of the country through April 9.
Back in the winters of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, we were measuring snow with yardsticks. This has been the season of the micrometer.
So in the realm of relativity, the snowfall totals thus far are impressive.
Generally, we are seeing 1 to 3 inches north and west and of the city, with the heftiest amounts in Chester County, and 1 to 2 inches in South Jersey.
This morning we once again were stung by a chill wind inappropriate for a March 22, punctuated with a few insulting snowflakes, and were further discouraged by the longer-range outlooks that extend below-normal temperatures indefinitely.
As everyone now knows, on Feb. 2 Punxsutawney Phil promised an early spring after his forced emergence from his burrow on Groundhog Day.
This morning, the chief prosecuting attorney of Butler County, Ohio, has become a national celebrity by drawing attention to the Groundhog's incompetence.
The ubiquitous Weather Channel set off a storm when it decided unilaterally to name winter storms this season over the objections of its competitors.
But that storm might look like a spring shower compared to the one stirred by TWC's application to claim the "dot-weather" Internet suffix.
"It's one of the least-professional things I've seen ... in a long time," said Barry Lee Myers, chief executive officer of Accu-Weather Inc.
The trees behind the impressioinistic veil of the fog this morning were swollen beautifully with the subtle colors of buds.
Later, we were delighted to see the sun muscle through the congested skies, and the dramas of the storm-remnant clouds.
As much as we enjoyed it all, we are about ready for some actual spring warmth.
On March 18 and 19, 1956, a surprise storm bestowed over 8 inches of snow on Philadelphia, and two years laters, the famous equinox storm buried parts of Chester County under 3 feet of heavy, wet snow.
Nothing like that is happening, but the National Weather Service has just issued a winter-weather advisory for 1 to 3 inches of snow for Bucks, Chester and Montgomery Counties.
The adivsory in in effect until 1 a.m.
Five days before the equinox, it's beginning to feel a lot like five days before the winter solstice.
The air the last two days has had a wintry bite, and the National Weather Service forecast is calling for a chance of minor snow accumulations around Philly during the weekend.
While the region has weathered some cosmic late-season snowfalls -- including the 19.4 inches of April 3-4, 1915, and the great equinox storm of 1958 when 3 feet was measured in Chester County -- snow from March 15 on is the anomaly in Philadelphia.
Computer models' showing giant snowstorms a week in advance are a winter tradition.
What was different about the models in the first week of March 1993 was that they turned out to be right.
The Blizzard of 1993 was a true snow hurricane, with wind gusts as high as 77 m.p.h. reported at the Shore.
Already this has been the snowiest March in Philadelphia since 2009, when 9 inches landed at the official measuring station the first two days of the month.
Granted, the 0.2 inches of last week was hardly a paralyzer -- more fell to the northeast - but the atmosphere pitched a late-winter snow shutout the previous three years with no measureable snow after March 1.
Odds favor more snow before the month is over, according to Accu-Weather meteorologist Jack Boston, as a chill settles over the Northeast and storm traffic becomes brisk.
For the region's disappointed snow-lovers who were looking forward to those delightful spring-teaser days so characteristic of March as a consolation prize, we suggest you not read the rest of this post.
The longer-range indicators suggest that while the daylight hours will be extended starting Sunday, winter also is getting an extension.
The Climate Prediction Center's latest outlook says the odds favor below-normal temperatures through March 22, which would include the first two full days of spring.
Tony Wood has been writing about the atmosphere for The Inquirer for 26 years. E-mail Tony here. And read all his columns here.
