While Schuylkill County experienced snow accumulation of more than five inches and freezing temperatures this weekend, the weather will warm up by the time the first day of winter rolls around on Saturday.
On Friday, expect a high of 46 and a 30 percent chance of showers, according to the National Weather Service website at weather.gov. On Saturday, it should be 41 degrees and with a 50 percent chance of rain, according to the site.
"Looks like it's going to warm up quite a bit. The series of systems we've been seeing are starting to warm the atmosphere and taking the cold air out," Paul Head, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, State College, said Sunday.
He predicted there wouldn't be snow in Schuylkill County for Christmas.
"That, I'm afraid, is not in the cards, despite all the snow we've had," he said.
On Sunday, Head was collecting snowfall accumulation reports from Schuylkill County.
"Tamaqua had 5.3 inches. Mahanoy City had five. So did Pine Grove. There was also five in Pottsville. And Auburn had 4.5," he said.
On Sunday morning, people throughout the county were out with shovels, ice scrapers and snow blowers to dig out from the storm.
According to a supervisor at Schuylkill County Communications Center, there wasn't an overabundance of traffic accidents Saturday night through Sunday.
"People must have stayed in," a supervisor said Sunday night.
The most serious appeared to be a two-vehicle accident that occurred at 1:40 p.m. Sunday on Suffolk Road in Mahanoy Township, according to the supervisor.
A MedEvac helicopter flew one person to Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, and an ambulance transported another to Schuylkill Medical Center-South Jackson Street, Pottsville, according to the supervisor.
Mahanoy Township police, who were in charge of the scene, were unavailable for comment Sunday night.
The weather will become more mild as the week goes on, Head said.
"It's going to mild-up quite a bit. This storm pretty much blew the cold air out. It's what we call a warm occlusion-type storm. There's Arctic air ahead of the storm. On Saturday, for example, it was below zero across northern Vermont and upstate New York and across northern New England. And all that cold air, basically, got drawn into the storm from the Northeast. Behind the storm, the air is much milder," Head said.
On Monday night into Tuesday morning, Schuylkill County may see an inch of snow, according to Head.
On Monday night, there's a 30 percent chance of snow showers. On Tuesday, there will be a 40 percent chance of snow showers and high temperatures around 33 degrees. On Tuesday night, there will be a 20 percent chance of snow, according to weather.gov.