If it appears that the tenacious meringue of snow and ice that landed on the region two weekends ago hasn’t budged, it hasn’t.
Among Philadelphia winters, this one is approaching a rarefied status.
Not long after Phil predictably saw his shadow in Punxsutawney, the National Weather Weather Service contractor at at Philadelphia international Airport reported a snow depth of six inches on Monday.
That marked the eighth consecutive day of a snow cover of at least six inches, a streak unmatched since February 2010 — which included a five-day period in which 44 inches of snow had fallen.
And what’s out there now may get a fresh frosting on Tuesday night that could affect the Wednesday morning commute, and perhaps snow squalls on Friday with the approach of another Arctic front as the freezer reopens.
Don’t be surprised if next Monday morning looks a lot like this one.
“The snowpack is not going anywhere,” said Amanda Lee, meteorologist at the weather service office in Mount Holly.
What explains the durability of the snow cover
The primary factor locking in the regional glacier has been the obvious — the cold. Sunday marked the ninth consecutive day that temperatures failed to reach freezing, the longest stretch since 2004.
Temperatures since Jan. 24 have averaged 14 degrees below normal in Philly. January temperatures ended up finishing 2.2 degrees below normal, even though the month had a nine-day warm spell in which the highs went past 55 on five days.
In addition to the cold, the icy layers of sleet that have put a cap and a patent-leather sheen on the several inches of snow that fell Jan. 25, have limited melting. Ice is way slower to melt than snow.
Nine days after an official 9.3 inches of snow and ice was measured officially, about two-thirds of it has survived.
The forecast for the next several days
The region is in for a modest — very modest — warming trend. Readings cracked freezing Monday, reaching 34 degrees at 2 p.m., and are forecast to top out near 32 Tuesday and Wednesday, and hold in the upper 20s Thursday. Those readings still would be several degrees below normal.
Some light snow is possible Tuesday night, “maybe up to an inch,” said Lee.
Said Matt Benz, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc., “it could make things slippery for the morning commute on Wednesday.”
Friday afternoon, he said, the region could see snow squalls — brief, mini-blizzards that can come on without notice and reduce visibility dangerously.
Then it’s back to the freezer with expected weekend lows in single digits and highs falling short of the 20s.
In short, it appears that region is in for a repetitive sequence evocative of the 1990s movie classic Groundhog Day.
“We’ve had lots of very similar days,” Lee said.