Get snow shovels, scrapers ready

"An accumulating snow is likely Thursday night into Friday morning," according to an afternoon "hazardous weather" advisory from the National Weather Service. "It would impact the Friday morning commute."

Scrapers and shovels might be needed Friday, according to forecasters. On Tuesday, Naureen Bhullar needed an umbrella to shield herself from chilly rain as she removed the snow from her car on West Second Street in Media. (Clem Murray / Staff Photographer)Read more

by By Peter Mucha, Inquirer Staff Writer

Published Jan. 19, 2011, 8:35 a.m. ET

The statement covers Eastern Pennsylvania, and all of New Jersey and Delaware.

Friday morning could see more snow falling on top of a couple of inches already on the ground in Philadelphia, said senior meteorologist Paul Walker of AccuWeather.

"The models are in pretty good consensus, so I feel pretty confident about the track we're talking about for this storm," he said.

A snow-producing system in the Plains is going to sweep through the Ohio Valley before likely bringing 3 to 6 inches of snow to states in the Northeast, forecasters agree.

As of early afternoon, snow was falling in Nebraska and Kansas, on its way toward St. Louis - and eventually Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.

As of this morning, the forecast for Philadelphia was "mainly snow," although "there may be some mix, especially along the coast," said meteorologist Valerie Meola of the weather service.

Accumulations look like 3 to 6 inches north and west of the city, 2 to 4 in the city and south and east, with rain mixing in closer to Cape May County and the lower Delmarva Peninsula, Walker said.

The snow should arrive Thursday after the afternoon commute, somewhere from evening until midnight, and could continue into Friday afternoon.

Winds might be fairly calm at first, perhaps picking up at times to about 20 m.p.h. on Friday.

Accumulation will depend partly on how quickly the system moves, Meola said. The faster it is, the less snow the area should get.

Any mix appears likely to be rain and snow - no sleet or the kind of freezing rain that glazed the area Tuesday morning. But that could change, she said.

In Philadelphia, temperatures Thursday and Friday might only briefly surpass the freezing mark - and then a frigid weekend, with highs in the 20s, will preserve whatever falls.

Fortunately, today's high in the low 40s will help clear away clumps and piles lingering from the last storm.

Another storm next week? Forecasters are also keeping an eye on a possible snow-producer next Tuesday and Wednesday. A low coming down from Canada could meet another swinging up the coast - the kind of merger that has produced significant snowfalls in the past.

But the latest computer models can't agree, yielding projections that range from nothing (coastal low stays well out to sea) to mostly rain to mostly snow, Walker said.

The highs should be back into the 30s, he said.

"There's still a lot of disagreement in the guidance," Meola concurred. " . . . It's too far out to be very detailed."

Ominously, an AccuWeather.com article declares, without going into specifics:

"There are more storms on deck for the following couple of weeks. At least one of these has the potential to be another blockbuster for some areas."