Radar images already are picking up snow across the region, but the air is so dry that the flakes are evaporating before landing.
Any serious snow still is several hours away, although a trickier issue would be how much, if any, arrives during the afternoon commute, and whether it will be enough to pester drivers.
The first flakes should filter in sometime between 4 and 6 p.m., said Gary Szatkowski, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service, with the heavy snow arriving between 8 and 10 p.m. as the storm explodes off the Jersey coast.
Typically, the heavier stuff falls to the northwest of the center, and that will be the case tonight and tomorrow. New England could get creamed, and Accu-Weather is weighing a blizzard warning up that way, said meteorologist Henry Margusity.
For Philadelphia, this is looking like a substantial but by no means paralyzing storm. The unwavering forecasts still call for 4 to 8 in the immediate Philadelphia region, all ending by daybreak tomorrow.
The latest snow accumulation map looks very much like the ones posted yesterday.
Said Margusity, "This is not going to shut down things, other than school tomorrow."