Thaw's latest ally: Mother Nature

A powerful ally has joined the region's battle to move and remove some of the trillion pounds of snow that has descended upon Philadelphia and its neighboring counties during the weekend: Nature.

As signs of normality emerged from all those white mounds on Tuesday, afternoon temperatures well into the 40s subtly trimmed back snowbanks on the region's roads.

Philadelphia reported 80 percent of its streets were passable. Nearly every school that remained closed was preparing to open Wednesday.

Blizzard fallout of a different sort continued down the Shore, where as much as 3 feet of frigid water had coursed through the streets during the storm. For a second day, Gov. Christie was pelted with hails of criticism over what what the locals viewed as his dismissive assessment of damages.

"You want me to go down there with a mop?" the presidential hopeful had quipped to a New Hampshire crowd, after being asked about leaving waterlogged Jersey behind for the campaign trail.

Fortunately on the mainland, flooding hasn't been an issue - and isn't likely to become one as the atmosphere has taken a benign turn.

A freezing-rain threat fizzled Tuesday morning, a late-week snow scare disappeared and the long-range forecasts suggested that the liquid locked in that prodigious snowpack would return quietly to the water cycle. Forecasts called for temperatures above freezing for the next several afternoons, and perhaps into the mid-40s on Sunday and Monday.

As of Tuesday morning, the official 22.4 inches that landed at Philadelphia International Airport had been reduced to 12 inches, and no sudden, flood-causing melts, such as the one that occurred after the record Jan. 7-8, 1996, were in the picture.

Calling this a "January thaw," however, might be stretch. After an other-worldly warm December, temperatures this month have been a shade above normal, despite what has become one of the snowiest Januaries on record.

Still it's likely to be days before the region reverts to business as usual as it recovers from 20 to 30 inches of snow and road-closing drifts.

Some city streets remained narrow channels through snow banks, and others were still clogged. On Tuesday, 16 SEPTA bus routes weren't running, including the popular 33 to Center City, which carries 14,000 passengers a day.

Mayor Kenney said the city was "committed" to having all through streets passable by the end of Wednesday.

SEPTA advised rail commuters that they should continue to expect delays and overcrowded trains, particularly on the Doylestown/Lansdale, West Trenton and Trenton Lines.

And on the roads, the plows were still at it. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said it had 182 of its 450 plows scraping state roads and highways on Tuesday.

"They're working around the clock," said John Krafczyk, assistant district executive for maintenance at PennDot.

He said crews were working 12-hour shifts to clear more than 11,000 miles of lanes on state roads.

"And unless we get some serious melting," he said, "they will still be working all week," he said.

twood@phillynews.com 610-313-8210 @woodt15

Inquirer staff writers Michael Boren, Maddie Hanna, Jason Laughlin, and Jacqueline L. Urgo contributed to this article.