Snow, an October rarity
Computer model aside, history, common sense argue against snow in October.
As Peter Mucha's online story mentions, snowflakes could fly this weekend not very far from Philadelphia.
In fact, one computer model, the respected Euroopean, continues to show a coastal storm passing close enough to the coast to cause accumulating snow just to the north and west of the city during the weekend.
It remains the outlier, however, and the National Weather Service notes in the afternoon discussion that the U.S. and Canadian models are shoveling the storm out to sea.
We here at Weather or Not would be surprised, if not shocked, if any snow even coated the trees this weekend in the immediate Philadelphia area.
For that to happen, it would have to snow heavily and turn cold quickly. Officially, the temperature at Philadelphia International Airport hasn't gone below 42 yet this season.
And nature would have to buck history. Granted, that's been known to happen.
But records dating to 1884 show only three measurable snows in October -- 2.1 inches on the 10th, in 1979; 2.0 on the 19th and 20th, 1940, and 1.1 on the 30th and 31st, 1925.
However remote the threat, it has been valuable pre-season training for the posters on the American Weather forum chat board. Here is the storm discussion; skip to the last page for the latest.