Monday, August 13, 2012
Summer's grip of nastier heat is slowly easing and temperatures this week will be more tolerable.
After 35 90-degree days in Philadelphia, the prospect of a week free of mentions of heat index, extreme heat, or heat warnings should make a quite a few residents happy. While considerable humidity will appear on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday this week, the odds of a heat wave or a stretch of 90-degree days is rather remote. We could briefly flirt with 90 on either Monday, Tuesday, or Friday, but computer modeling from this point suggests highs won't reach that mark at all this week. Despite the lack of heat in the coming days, there will be humidity (as we mentioned) and a few of rounds of thunderstorms moving through the region. The first will be Tuesday afternoon and evening as a cool front approaches. Humidity will increase on Tuesday …
Monday, July 30, 2012
A week with plenty of chances for thunderstorms
July will end up as one of the top three hottest months in Philadelphia's records once the month ends on Tuesday. The only question is whether it finishes second or third. We won't know that answer with certainty until Tuesday night, but it probably won't end up as hot as last July ... which is the hottest on record in Philly. This week won't feature excessive or gut-wrenching heat but it will feature unsettled weather thanks to a trough in the atmosphere that is going to park itself just off the East Coast. This will provide chances of thunderstorms on a number of days this week with the greatest chances for storms on Tuesday, Wednesday, and also on Saturday into Sunday. With two disturbances tracking through during those timeframes, …
Monday, July 23, 2012
More rain and storms; no heat wave though
Rainfall deficits this year throughout southeastern Pennsylvania run between five and nine inches, which generally means that the region has seen about 70 to 80 percent of what is considered "normal" rainfall. While we don't need nor want a repeat of last August and September around here, lawns and gardens wouldn't mind more rainfall. Last week's two (three for some locations) bouts of rain —one on Sunday, scattered on Wednesday, and the other on Friday — definitely helped. More is on the way this week. Thunderstorm chances are in the forecast for late Monday and again on Tuesday as a frontal boundary out to our west crosses the region. Thunderstorms will be scattered so not everyone will see rainfall. However, because of increased …
Monday, July 16, 2012
A short but noticeable heat wave starts the work week before thunderstorms bring relief.
This week's weather features two distinct halves separated by a southward slipping cool front that will cross the region on Wednesday. It will mark the transition between the heat and humidity that marks the first half of the week and a cooler, less humid second half. First, the heat. Monday through Wednesday will feature temperatures in the 90s and lows in the 70s, with humidity slowly ratcheting higher each afternoon. The most oppressive days of the coming week appear to be Tuesday and Wednesday, with heat index values (what it feels like when heat and humidity are factored together) flirting with, or nudging past the 100 degree mark. We could see some isolated or scattered thunderstorms on Monday and Tuesday afternoon. The transition…
Monday, July 9, 2012
No signs of 100 degree weather in our region for the foreseeable future.
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Monday, July 9, 2012
Our multi-day heat wave mercifully ended with the passage of a cool front through the region to start this week. The front brought that gusty round of thunder on Saturday night that had more wind and lightning to it than raindrops in some locations. We could use the rain as the past three weeks have been a bit dry. One thing we can use — and will get — is a break from the heat that gripped the region recently. No 100 degree temperatures, no mentions of excessive heat warnings, nor any mention of dew points that rival those found in the tropics over the next week. The front that brought our heat wave's demise won't travel too far south of the region, stalling out over the Delmarva and Tidewater area of Virginia, an area that will pick up …
Monday, July 2, 2012
The Fourth of July's weather could include scattered T-storms
You may have heard more talk and discussion about the term "derecho" in the last couple of days than you ever remember hearing in Spanish class. A damaging line of thunderstorms slapped south Jersey and Delaware last Friday night. From a meteorological perspective, a derecho is a long duration line of thunderstorms that produces significant amounts of damaging straight-line wind along its path. A derecho is similar in many respects to a squall line, but derechos travel over longer distances and more frequently occur in the summer, fueled by heat and humidity. Last Friday's derecho traveled 1,000 miles in 17 hours, from Iowa to the east coast. Switching from Spanish and Meteorology 101 to this week's weather, we're in the peak of summer…
Monday, June 25, 2012
Wednesday looks to be the nicest day of the week; weekend will be toasty
Last week's first official heat wave was pretty intense as temperatures reached the middle 90s for three consecutive days. While thunderstorms missed a number of locations on Friday, other places were drenched with heat busting relief that allowed us to enjoy a very nice weekend. That niceness gets reinforced with a cool front crossing our region on Monday, although a price will be paid with some showers and storms accompanying the frontal passage through the region. Tuesday and Wednesday shape up as pretty nice days, with a relatively cool Tuesday by late June standards. High temperatures are unlikely to top 80 degrees. There could be a shower up toward Allentown and in the Poconos, thanks to cool air aloft getting agitated by June …
Monday, June 18, 2012
Wednesday is the official start of summer ... and it will feel that way.
While this year started out on a hot note, June has not. In fact, this month has had temperatures about a degree below normal through the first two-plus weeks. It's been a welcome respite from buzzing air conditioners and sweating at the drop of a hat. The bad news for those of us who like our summers not-so-hot is that things will change for the "official" start of summer on Wednesday. A ridge of high pressure will build overhead for a couple of days, allowing temperatures to reach, or breach, the season's highest mark so far (94, last Sunday) on Thursday afternoon. Before that heat, Monday and Tuesday will provide a fair bit of cloud cover and perhaps even a few thunderstorms each afternoon. Odds don't favor much thunder locally as the…
Monday, June 11, 2012
Rain, 'training' thunderstorms and flooding
This weekend's foray into summery temperatures and warmth is thankfully not the start of a prolonged heat wave. The combination of a weak backdoor cool front pushing down from New England and a weakening ridge of high pressure in the atmosphere will help nudge temperatures back closer to reality for the start of the week. As the ridge of high pressure continues to weaken, a cool front to our west will nudge east towards us for the middle of the week, potentially bringing us heavy rain and a thunderstorm for Tuesday night and Wednesday. Computer model projections show an inch of rain to perhaps over three inches of rain for Tuesday and Wednesday with higher rainfall totals possible over the Poconos. The combination of a moisture rich …
Monday, June 4, 2012
Temperatures will hover near 70 and showers will linger nearby for the next several days, but next weekend's weather should be worth the wait.
A cooler fling with late spring Personally, I like late spring and early summer quite a bit ― it's not my favorite weather when compared to October, but this time of the year brings you some of the longest days of the year. Also, if the pattern is right, you can get some really nice weather that rivals early fall in terms of low humidity and milder temperatures. This week, despite shower chances, will provide the combination of lower humidity and temperatures that are more typical for early May than early June. The cause is last Friday's storm system that brought rain and wind to the region. The storm system's energy in the upper portions of the atmosphere ended up parking itself over the Great Lakes this past weekend. It will slowly …
