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slop_storm

Monday's snow will stick then turn wet later in the day.

Credit: Elyas Tecle

Saturday night, Philadelphia officially dropped down to 8 degrees, just 6 degrees shy of the record: 2 degrees Fahrenheit.

The wind chills the last few days was even worse, making the air temperature feel like it was in the negative 10 to 20 degree range. But, where did all this cold air come from all of a sudden?

Well, the only air this cold is located in the North Pole. So, if you take a look up in the higher parts of the atmosphere in the polar regions, you’ll find record warm temperatures. The graphic below shows exactly where the center of that cold air is and you can see that it’s moved directly out of the North Pole, through Canada, all the way to the Northeast.

This is significant because the atmosphere acts like a seesaw. If the upper parts of the atmosphere (troposphere, stratosphere, etc.) are very warm or cold, then the lower parts (closer to the ground) must be the exact opposite. Given that temperatures in the upper layers are at record warm levels, it seems fitting that temperatures closer to the ground are near record lows.

Although the arctic air is moving out, there is still more wintry weather in the forecast. A storm system that is tracking across the southern Ohio Valley as of Sunday night and has brought snow to start with on Monday. Later, Locust will go from white to wet and temperatures warm up enough to transition to a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain to eventually all rain by nightfall. 

No more than an inch of snow should fall on campus with more the farther north of the city you go. All in all, it isn’t too big if a wintry event for Penn with more in the way of rain falling through Monday night into Tuesday. Temperatures Tuesday should also reach the 50’s, a welcome warmth after the bitter cold.

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