Philly may be in for one rainy week, and Tropical Storm Debby remnants might be a factor
There was even a 54-mph gust Saturday. The forecast calls for rain chances almost every day this week.
With last week’s official national drought update, significant portions of the region were designated as “abnormally dry,” with Northeast Philadelphia, Lower Bucks County, and parts of Burlington County all in “moderate drought.”
Don’t be surprised if they lose that status this week, and the grasses stage a rally, and those cracks in the soil get filled in with wet dirt.
After storms that took down wires in the Evesham Township and Moorestown areas of Burlington County, on Saturday evening and generated a 54-mph gust at Philadelphia International Airport, more rounds of showers are expected Sunday.
Chances of showers are in the forecast every day this weekexcept Monday, the National Weather Service says, and it is possible that the moisture related to the remnants of what became Tropical Storm Debby on Saturday may have some effects on the region at midweek.
Plus, the government’s Climate Prediction Center has chances favoring above normal precipitation for the Aug. 11-17 period.
With August off to a steam-bath start, the atmosphere was primed for assorted mayhem Saturday. The biggest threat Saturday, said Sarah Johnson, warning coordination meteorologist in the Mount Holly office, was “downburst” winds, which appeared to have been a factor in Burlington County.
Downbursts are potent gusts resulting from thunderstorm downdrafts, sometimes confined to limited areas, or microbursts, or broader areas, called macrobursts.
Johnson said that severe weather was less of a threat on Sunday; however, heavy rains remained in play.
Some parts of the region certainly would benefit from the sky’s generosity.
Summer showers are notoriously capricious, and that has been evident the last two months.
According to the weather service’s Middle Atlantic Forecast Center, through Friday rainfall had been merely 62% of normal in Bucks County, and 70% of normal in Philadelphia and Montgomery County. The center uses stations at several locations in each county to come up with countywide totals.
By contrast, precipitation for the same period was close to 100% of averages in Camden and Gloucester Counties.
In its latest update, issued Thursday, the interagency U.S. Drought Monitor had Philadelphia and its neighboring Pennsylvania counties, save for southern Delco and Chesco, in the “abnormally dry” zone.
In addition to the likely changes in the drought map, the region will be exiting the hot zone, after one of the warmest June-July periods on record and sultry beginning to August.
Temperatures Sunday are forecast to peak in the mid-80s, and head back past 90 on Monday and the upper 80s Tuesday.
However, for the rest of the week they may struggle to get past 80, and perhaps no higher than mid-79 come Saturday.