It looks as if the Philadelphia area can breathe a huge sigh of relief that a massive storm system that brought devastation to the Deep South might have little impact here.Despite a host of warnings so far, including for tornados, large hail, heavy rains and damaging winds - and more turbulence possible into late afternoon - today's weather in the Philadelphia region should prove to be "not a major event."
So said meteorologist Walter Drag of the National Weather Service about 1:30 this afternoon.
Winds topped 50 miles per hour in Delaware. A tree fell on a schoolbus in South Heidelberg, Berks County. Parts of the Poconos might get two inches of rain or more.
Other scattered pockets of sudden storminess experienced lightning, gustiness and downpours, as a cold front slowly advanced from the south and west.
But Peco was reporting no major outages, Traffic.com was listing only a couple of spots in the city and suburbs with downed wires, and no funnel clouds touched down, despite a warning that kept moving this morning, from Lancaster County to the Easton area to North Jersey.
Observations at airports around the region mentioned mostly light rain and thunder, and delays in and out of Philadelphia International were largely due to problems elsewhere.
The front is related to the massive series of storms that spawned more than 100 tornados that killed more than 240 people in the South, most of them in Alabama and Mississippi.
A severe thunderstorm watch was still in effect till 4 p.m. for Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, but radar was showing intensity mostly in "little pockets" along the I-95 corridor and east of it in New Jersey, Drag Said.
"The worst will be over by 5," he said.
Then things might clear up quickly, even producing some sunshine late this afternoon or early evening, and ushering in a very promising weekend, he said.
So said meteorologist Walter Drag of the National Weather Service about 1:30 this afternoon.
Winds topped 50 miles per hour in Delaware. A tree fell on a schoolbus in South Heidelberg, Berks County. Parts of the Poconos might get two inches of rain or more.
Other scattered pockets of sudden storminess experienced lightning, gustiness and downpours, as a cold front slowly advanced from the south and west.
But Peco was reporting no major outages, Traffic.com was listing only a couple of spots in the city and suburbs with downed wires, and no funnel clouds touched down, despite a warning that kept moving this morning, from Lancaster County to the Easton area to North Jersey.
Observations at airports around the region mentioned mostly light rain and thunder, and delays in and out of Philadelphia International were largely due to problems elsewhere.
The front is related to the massive series of storms that spawned more than 100 tornados that killed more than 240 people in the South, most of them in Alabama and Mississippi.
"The worst will be over by 5," he said.
Then things might clear up quickly, even producing some sunshine late this afternoon or early evening, and ushering in a very promising weekend, he said.
