BETHLEHEM, Pa. — After the Lehigh Valley saw a little bit of snow Monday night, with 1.2 inches officially measured at the airport, we’ll have another opportunity for wintry weather later this week as an active pattern takes hold.
It’s also not the only shot at snow we’ll have in the coming days, forecasters say.
- An active pattern could bring more snow chances to the Lehigh Valley in the coming days
- Friday could be a 2-to-4 or 3-to-5-inch type storm, forecasters say
- Monday also has a shot at wintry precipitation
“The long-term period looks to be defined as a more active and unsettled timeframe compared to the middle of this week,” the National Weather Service said in its latest forecast discussion.
It noted that confidence has increased for a system that will affect the region late Friday through early Saturday morning.
Cold, but will it be cold enough?
A blocking high near Greenland has forced the jet stream south, allowing an intrusion of colder air into the United States (a pattern for which snow lovers would've been ecstatic a few months ago).
But now it’s a “cold” pattern by March standards, and there’s a ticking clock on the official end of the winter season as the spring equinox arrives on March 20.
It means we won’t have a deep, cold air mass in place and should not expect widespread large snowfall totals. But meteorologists say we certainly have a shot for wintry precipitation and accumulating snow from the Interstate 78 corridor and points north for Friday night’s system — especially across the higher elevations.
“This is actually one of those systems that is in rare form, in the sense that most guidance this year has not been agreeing with each other,” said EPAWA meteorologist Bobby Martrich in his latest video forecast.
“Some of them were showing some big storms at different times, other ones were like, ‘eh,’ and usually the ‘eh’ worked out.”
But Martrich said models for Friday’s system are showing “an unusual amount of agreement,” putting expected snowfall totals in the 2-to-4 or 3-to-5-inch range in the Lehigh Valley area and points north.
“We will need to look at the next couple days here and see where this trends,” Martrich said, while noting models have been consistent on “the same general idea.”
The weather service agrees, noting the setup continues to support snowfall accumulations north of I-78 but said the progressive nature of the pattern and lack of a cold air mass will limit snowfall totals.
“While confidence is high on a system moving through on Friday night/Saturday, specific impacts, precipitation type, and any accumulations remains somewhat unclear at this time,” the forecast discussion said, while warning of potential travel impacts in this time frame.
Another system worth watching?
Uncertainty remains high beyond the weekend, but models are also debating potential snowfall over the region early next week.
For now, no clear trend has been established but forecasters say it will bear watching over the next several days.
The latest trend “is faster and more progressive with the system, meaning a potentially less impactful scenario for our region," the weather service said.
"In any case, there is little consensus in this period of the forecast, so the official forecast carries chances for precipitation.”
Over the weekend, sunrise shifts to 7:18 a.m. as the clocks “spring forward” an hour and sunset moves to 7:05 p.m.
Regardless of when or how much it snows, the March sun angle — which is equivalent to a late September or early October sun — is a big reason why snow doesn’t accumulate nearly as fast this time of year.
It’s also the reason why accumulating snow melts rapidly, even if it manages to pile up.
