Snow makes for another messy morning

Another winter storm has dumped about a half-foot of powdery snow in the Philadelphia area and much of South Jersey, making driving hazardous at the start of the morning rush and prompting hundreds of schools to either close and open late.

Philadelphia public and Catholic schools are closed, as are many districts in South Jersey, including Evesham, Willingboro, Medford, Medford Lakes, Mount Laurel, Shamong and Tabernacle, all in Burlington County. Another half-dozen districts closed in Atlantic County.

Even more schools were opening an hour or two late, from a handful of districts in Bucks County to more than a dozen in Montgomery and Gloucester Counties.

A number of motor vehicle accidents, including spinouts, have been reported around the region as road conditions varied from snow covered, to slushy and just wet and slippery.

But conditions improved as traffic built during the morning and temperature headed toward a high in the low 30s.

The one bright spot is that the snow was light and powdery, so shoveling walkways and cleaning it from cars was relatively easy.

Mass transit appears to be meeting the challenge, but SEPTA is detouring buses around hilly routes. One train - No. 1295 on the Newark/Wilmington line - was canceled. Go to www.septa.org for the latest information.

The airport also appears to be faring better, with the number of canceled flights considerably below the numbers seen in earlier storms.

"We're in good shape," said Victoria Lupica, an airport spokeswoman. Only 32 of today's flights were cancelled, 20 of them inbound from other cities.

She said 135 passengers were stranded at the airport overight.

Go to www.phl.org to check on flights.

The National Weather Service said 6 inches of snow fell at Philadelphia International Airport.

Rain expected later in the week could help get rid of what lingers from this snowfall.

For more on the forecast, go to http://go.philly.com/weather.