What an interesting weather pattern -- from record highs to high winds to snow, all in a few days.
First, the records:
Philadelphia broke a record of 66 set WAY back in 1887 -- breaking it easily. We reached 68 degrees at 2 p.m. Wednesday, well before the usual time of the highest temperature.
Every other one of our area official locations also set records for this date. The highs are still far from the warmest February temperature on record, which was 79 degrees in 1930.
Next comes the cold front. It's the same one that triggered the tornadoes in Oklahoma Tuesday and more tornadoes in the Tennessee Valley Wednesday.
The storms should weaken as they head our way, but the wind pattern on both sides of the front should stay strong. This means strong winds Thursday.
Wind gusts are hitting as high as 60 mph, like we're seeing in Wilmington -- that's enough to cause some wind damage in the area. A Wind Warning is in effect for our region until 7pm.
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Then comes the Valentine's snow -- maybe. It's a battle between the U.S. computer models, which are strongly favoring snow, and the European models, which keep us dry. Even the U.S. models don't bring a lot of snow to the area.
We'll see which continent wins the battle of the models.
Then comes next week with the setup for a significant storm looking more impressive. The computer models agree on a coastal storm, but there are differences in timing, exact location and strength.
The folks in Washington at NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Protection) are already comparing the setup to the famous "Lindsay Storm of Feb. 8 to 10, 1969. That one only gave Philly a few inches, but more than 20" fell in New York.
It's always interesting when the computer models disagree on a weak system three days from now, and pretty much agree on a storm seven days from now.
It should be interesting to track.
