Snow threat for Saturday; chill lingers, but can 70s be far behind?

For the last several days the behavior of the computer models suggests that they are at least as disoriented as the daffodils and crocuses that have spent precious April days poking through the incongruous snow.

But late Thursday, those models appeared to agree that the region was in for a mere "nuisance" snowfall on Saturday, probably no more than an inch or two, meteorologists said. That's subject to change, of course, given that at various times this week the model outputs have vacillated from nothing for Philadelphia, to a major snowstorm, to not much precipitation.

"It's pretty likely we will see some snow," said Dave Dombek, a meteorologist with AccuWeather, which was calling for 1 to 3 inches, but "I don't think anyone gets 3."

In this case, it appears less will fall to the north of the city.

The fact that most of it would come during the day would make any accumulation on paved surfaces unlikely. Wet snow is no match for the April sun unless the flakes fall in torrents, and Dombek said it could all be over by midafternoon.

Speaking of that April sun, Dombek said temperatures could well make a run for the 70s by the end of next week. In the meantime, the next several days will feature a continuation of a wintry pattern that has pestered and persisted since early March.

"Winter doesn`t seem to want to let go of our area," the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly said in its Thursday afternoon discussion.

Yet another coastal storm could throw back rain and/or wet snow late Monday into Tuesday.

"At this juncture," Dombek said, "it's a dicey borderline, marginal situation where there could be some garbage stuff that transfers to rain.

"That should be the caboose."

Accumulating snow in April is somewhere between infrequent and rare, but it does happen. On April 6, 1982, 3½ inches fell officially in the city, with significantly higher amounts to the north and west.

The record for an April 7^th is 2.4 inches, set back in 1990. And it does seem as though winter has decided it likes it around here.

"It just doesn't want to end," said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Paul Walker.

Up to 4 inches of snow was reported northwest of the city on Monday, and some places have received better than 50 inches for the season, with totals bulked up by the sequence of March nor'easters.

Officially, 29.8 inches have been measured at Philadelphia International Airport, better than 7 inches above the seasonal average.

But finally, Dombek said, it does appear that something resembling April is coming late next week.

At long last, the government's Climate Prediction Center's two-week outlook does call for an excellent chance of spring.