Snow days

Should it happen this winter that Philadelphia gets a 6-inch snowfall -- or even the forecast of a 6-inch snowfall -- it would be far and away and weather event of the winter.

Back on Feb. 25-26, 2010, Philadelphia officially did receive 5.7 inches of snow, and to call it a non-event might be overstating the quantity of drama. In short, we hardly noticed.

That snowfall was upstaged and then some by an historic siege of whitness that began around 6 p.m. Feb. 5 and came to a frigid, wind-blown end just before midnight on the 10th.

In that 126-hour period, officially Philadelphia received 44.3 inches of snow, or two seasons' worth.

Those first flakes arrived on the evening of the 5th, and they came fast. As it was starting, we recall dropping off our son at a friend's who lived a quarter-mile away, and being unable to get back up the hill leading to our house. We abandoned the car at a school yard.

By midnight, 6.6 inches had accumulated, and the snow became even heavier in the early-morning hours. At daybreak, winds were gusting to 40 m.p.h.

When it all came to an end late in the afternoon, the official total weighed in at an incredible 28.5 inches.

Then, astonishingly, no sooner had the snow stopped than a second storm took shape, and in some areas it would be worse than the first.

That one got going the evening of Tuesday, the 9th, with a quick 6.5 inches by midnight. The  snow changed to freezing and plain rain for a prolonged period in Philadelphia from about 3 a.m. until late morning on the 10th, holding down accumulations.

But that afternoon, between 3:30 and 5, some of the heaviest snow we've ever seen moved back into the region, followed by a persistent period of snow that lasted until midnight, driven by wind gusts up to 38 m.p.h.

The final total for that one was 15.8 inches, or about five times what we've had so far this winter.

Here are the National Weather Service summary for the Feb. 5-6 storm and the accumulation amounts; and here are the summary and storm totals for Feb. 9-10.