Blizzard warnings are in effect for the Jersey Shore, and the National Weather Service has issued a winter-storm warning for the immediate Philadelphia area from a potent coastal storm that is expected to become a “bomb cyclone.” Snow is forecast to move through the region during the early-morning hours of Thursday and perhaps continue through the day, followed by yet even colder temperatures.
Forecast
Projected accumulations range from 4 to 5 inches in Philadelphia and its collar counties, 6 to 8 inches in adjacent South Jersey and up to 10 inches with wind gusts up to 50 mph at the Shore, prompting the blizzard warnings there.
National Weather Service
“This will create significant impacts both from blowing and drifting snow and associated reduced visibilities as well as falling temperatures with increasingly bitter wind chills,” the weather service said.
Temperatures in the Philadelphia area will plunge again Thursday night to a low of 8 degrees. That will be followed by night-time lows of 5 and 2 on Friday and Saturday. Gusting winds will push the wind-chill factor to dangerous levels Thursday and Friday and could knock down power lines, the weather service is warning.
Cold Yet? The Worst Is Yet to Come
Snow, in the meantime, has started falling in northern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Warning – The roads in S Georgia are slippery. Use extreme caution. This photo is from SR-135 in Montgomery County. #gsp pic.twitter.com/hV2i2DMpU8
— Georgia DPS (@ga_dps) January 3, 2018
And in a related aside, CNN reports that at least one weather station in each of the 48 states in the continental United States recorded a temperature below freezing Wednesday morning.
It's really, really cold. How cold? Every state in the continental US had at least one weather reporting station measure a below-freezing temperature this morning https://t.co/AgeHqKXC8J pic.twitter.com/9WKXtPKiKE
— CNN (@CNN) January 3, 2018
Schools
Archdiocese schools in Philadelphia are closed Thursday; Catholic schools in the suburbs typically follow their corresponding district in deciding whether to open. The Philadelphia School District has not yet announced a decision. A complete list of school closings and delays is available from NBC Philadelphia.
Utilities
The deep freeze has kept water-service repair crews busy fixing busted mains around the region.Water main breaks reported Thursday include Federal Street in downtown Camden; Route 70, east of Kings Highway in Cherry Hill; Coventry Avenue in Cheltenham; Sutton Road in Lower Merion; and Byberry Road in Northeast Philadelphia.
Work was expected to wrap up Wednesday on a broken 30-inch main on Balligomingo Road in West Conshocken.
Frozen pipes also have been a problem for homeowners. Tips to prevent your pipes from freezing or what to do if they do can be found here.
Roads
The Philadelphia Streets Department said it was prepared to deploy crews if roads needed to be salted and plowed.
Mass Transit
No major problems reported.
Air Travel
Some airlines are waiving rebooking fees for flights to cities that will be affected by the storm along the East Coast. Check with your airline to see if the waiver applies to you.
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