Storm morphs into double trouble

Surprise, surprise: Mother Nature gave us more than we bargained for.

Commuters who were told Tuesday to plan on having an afternoon headache yesterday actually woke up with an unexpectedly slushy migraine.

"It took an hour-and-a-half for me to get from Northeast Philly to Center City," said Tim Chandler, a building maintenance worker who was stunned at how bad the roads were near his house.

Forecasters initially predicted minimal snowfall for yesterday morning, with no accumulation expected until at least the late afternoon. Instead, Philadelphians awoke to almost 3 inches on the ground, and areas north and west of the city got hammered with up to 6 inches.

But morning commuters weren't the only ones surprised.

"The cold air in place in the North prevented the warm air from moving further up from the South," said Valerie Meola, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "The result led to banding in snowfall that allowed higher amounts to accumulate.

"Atypical storms such as this one can pack some surprises with them," she added. "Quite frankly, the weather models don't always work out the way they should."

The annoyingly early snow also sent PennDOT scrambling to clear the roads for the morning rush hour.

"We had to adjust as the weather pattern was stronger than predicted," said Gene Blaum, a PennDOT spokesman. "We had to beef up the equipment in the morning and we needed to use rental and contractor trucks."

PennDot used 315 pieces of equipment yesterday morning, but it was expecting to use 410 once the storm really got going last night and this morning.

"Luckily, no major accidents were reported this morning," Blaum said yesterday afternoon. "We're expecting 6 to 9 inches [total], and we will plan for the higher end of the estimate."

Blaum said that PennDOT has needed to act on 10 snowfall events this winter in Philadelphia and 18 events in Chester County. PennDOT has spent $15 million, which is already half its budget.

"Expect 5 to 10 inches of snow [more], giving the storm a total accumulation of 8 to 12 inches," Meola said.

And a little more is coming after that, said Alan Reppert, senior meteorologist at Accuweather.

"Snowfall is expected again [tomorrow] until Saturday," he said. "Not much is expected in snowfall because the temperature is rising."

We'll see about that.