Snow, Power Outages Pile Up in Blizzard 2016

OLD CITY (WTXF) - The snow is piling up, with accumulations surpassing a foot in several areas. Snow moved into the area Friday evening as the Blizzard warning issued by The National Weather Service for parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, went into effect.

The Philadelphia region is still expected to get 12-18 inches overall, but numbers could reach as high as 18-24 inches in some parts of the area.

Already, strong winds have shown they will be a problem, with the formation of snow drifts, and knocking out power for thousands in South Jersey.

Meanwhile, the city of Philadelphia has declared a Snow Emergency.

Of course, down the shore a different set of problems will come into play with the high wind down there and coastal flooding because it is a full moon this weekend, Saturday in particular.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf declared a state of emergency in Pennsylvania on Thursday afternoon, while the city declared a snow emergency Friday at noon. Delaware declared a State of Emergency as well on Friday afternoon.

New Jersey Go. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency for New Jersey ahead of the blizzard and flooding.

READ MORE: City declares snow emergency | SEPTA suspends operations | PHL cancels all Saturday flights. School and Business Closings | Philadelphia OEM Updates on Storm Response | Strong Winds, Heavy Rain in Atlantic City

Power outages were always likely with this storm because of the high wind bringing down heavy, wet snow. It is supposed to be that consistency of snow that is very difficult to shovel and can bring trees and power lines down pretty easily with winds gusting to 40 to 60 miles an hour. That is a problem.

We may have a break in the action about midday Saturday.

Hopefully, you can hunker down all day on Saturday.

It's still uncertain where that rain-band will set up as it creeps up from south to north, and there is the possibility of a dry slot.

We're expecting wind to gust, and whatever falls will be blowing around.

READ MORE: NJ Transit Suspends Service

Our snow map hasn't changed much, with the bullseye being on the Baltimore-Washington area, where they will get the brunt of the storm. We're not that far away, but we are expecting a foot or more of snow in most local areas.

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At a PennDot press conference on Friday officials said, "I can assure you, we at PennDOT are ready to go for this storm…" "Please be on alert for reduction of speed. We will be monitoring conditions closely."

MORE on BLIZZARD 2016: Storm brings flooding along parts of New Jersey coast | Coach: Duquesne b-ball team stuck overnight on snowy Turnpike | VIDEO: Car bursts into flames as it struggles to drive up snow covered hill