John Bolaris: Scary snowstorm turns into a bust

What an agonizing 72 hours it was trying to figure out just how much snow was in store for the Delaware Valley.

But as of this morning, it appears we escaped a very powerful and soon-to-be historic blizzard ripping away across eastern Long Island and hammering Southern New England with the force of a hurricane — but with snow.

A blinding one to three feet of snow will accumulate across portions of New England.

But for us? A cake walk in comparison with the snow pendulum swinging the right way for the Philadelphia region. Last night, by 9 p.m., I was reducing my forecast in the city to two to four inches. We might not even get that. It appears snow showers will end around noon, with only 1-3 inches dropping in and around the city, with more in eastern New Jersey.

From a forecast standpoint, it's been a failure, or better yet, a bust.

Whenever you're forecasting six inches or more of snow in the big city and it fails to happen, you disrupted livelihood and ticked off mom, dad, schools, businesses. To be honest, it was one of the toughest forecasting calls to make in a long time and I never had a high confidence level with this one.

The heaviest snow will remain across northeast sections of New Jersey and all points north and east. The heavy snow bands are trying to rotate around the southwestern flank of the storm and some of it will rotate through overnight.

This should allow for some accumulation, but certainly not a major storm.

The morning commute will be very slick and tricky in the locations that get the accumulating snow, along with a very cold strong and gusty wind. The last of the snow will be ending with just some leftover flurries — and some egg on the face of us meteorologists.

But it will be windy and very cold this afternoon. Wind chills will be in the teens and roadways will remain slick.