Cold, snowy spell of winter is getting a surprisingly warm welcome in Philly

A view looking out at the skyline from the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Saturday.

It might take a few days for operations at Philadelphia International Airport to get straightened out, and SEPTA still was dealing with a few minor issues, but on the coldest weekend of the season, with a biting wind subtly sculpting the snow, the locals appear to be making their peace with this thing called “winter.”

The steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art are dusted in snow on Saturday, a day after Philly got its biggest snowfall in two years.

Tables were full Saturday night at restaurants that endured some snow cancellations on Friday. “We’re rockin’ and rollin’,” said Max Glenn, manager at Suraya on Frankford Avenue in Fishtown.

At Franklin Fountain in Old City on Saturday afternoon the ice cream business — yes, ice cream — was experiencing a post-storm rally.

And given that the region had experienced two significant snowfalls in five days — up to a half-foot in some places on Friday — after two years in which not an inch fell upon Philly, roads throughout the area generally were in decent shape.

Forecasters say expect one more day of temperatures tumbling into the teens in the morning and not getting out of the 20s with gusts up to 25 mph generating another round of blowing snow.

Here’s how much snow fell in the Philly region Friday

But more of the snowpack almost certainly will disappear, said Eric Hoeflich, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, and that’s all part of nature’s magical vanishing act. And it may be out of here entirely by Wednesday.

Just about everything that was closed Friday and Saturday will be open Sunday. And, sorry, kids, so will schools on Monday, in all likelihood.

Why did some kids around Philly have snow days, while others logged on for lessons?

Post-storm issues

The worst of the storm problems evidently landed at Philadelphia International Airport, where 491 flights in and out of the city were delayed and 51 canceled on Friday. The situation improved markedly by Saturday afternoon, with 93 delays and only two incoming flights canceled, according to airport spokesperson Heather Redfern.

Still, Redfern said, it may take “a day or two” to get everything “back on track.”

On the ground, SEPTA, which had detoured 30 bus routes on Friday, was experiencing “some minor detours, but no significant issues due to the weather” on Saturday, said spokesperson Andrew Busch.

And the storm did extract a price from some car owners. In all, the Philadelphia Parking Authority towed close to 150 vehicles for snow-emergency violations, primarily along South Broad Street starting at Catharine Street on south, said spokesperson Marty O’Rourke. More got the hook on Walnut Street near Broad, and on Oregon and Packer Avenues in South Philly.

The storm did set off a blizzard of cancellations

Welcoming winter

This probably doesn’t apply to tow victims, but the weather service’s Hoeflich said he sensed that people were accepting the spell of winter with equanimity Friday night. “They seemed to be in a pretty good mood,” he said.

The venerable Friday, Saturday, Sunday restaurant in Center City not only was fully booked Saturday night, but almost everyone showed up Friday night, as well.

Only 10% to 20% of those who made reservations Friday night at Suraya decided to cancel, and tables were full Saturday night.

Hoeflich suggested that a lot of folks were glad to see that it could still snow around here and transform the landscape, and for at least a while hide all the reminders of those unfinished chores in the yard.

Among those who savored snow’s return was Hoeflich: “We certainly missed it.”

Want to try that viral snow cream recipe or a wintry wooder ice? Not so fast, say Pa. experts.

The vanishing act

The snow probably won’t be around long.

Despite the subfreezing temperatures, the dry air and winds have been erasing it through “sublimation,” in which the snow evaporates and disappears into the atmosphere. “We did notice that,” Hoeflich said.

Plus, the January sun is getting stronger. As Dave Dombek, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc., pointed out, we are a month removed from the winter solstice, and the sun now is setting after 5 p.m. And that makes a huge difference in melting.

For the week, officially Philadelphia has had 7.9 inches of snow, including 4.6 Friday. The seasonal total now stands at 8 inches — which would be 27 times what fell all of last winter, 0.3 inches. Philly has had more snow than Minneapolis, where a total of 7.3 has been measured so far, and where the temperature has gone below zero on six of the last eight days.

The Philly snowpack will take a hit Monday as temperatures are forecast to rise above freezing, and rain is possible Wednesday through Friday with highs in the 40s, maybe even 50 on Friday.

However, flooding won’t be an issue, he said, as the rains should be light, and chances are excellent that it will not be falling upon snow.

Inquirer staff writer Barbara Laker contributed to this article.

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