Memorial Day weekend forecast to be mostly dry around Philly, but expect a chill at the Shore
It's a "low-confidence" forecast, but expect a gorgeous Saturday and Sunday on the mainland, and the Shore should be dry most of the time.
Unofficially the first weekend of summer is imminent, but as is so often the case at the Shore, neither the atmosphere nor the Atlantic Ocean is necessarily buying into the concept. Jackets, and perhaps even umbrellas, may end up getting more use than bathing suits.
While Saturday almost certainly will be dry and sunny, onshore winds, cooled by the still-chilly Atlantic sea-surface waters, are forecast to keep temperatures from getting out of the 60s much of the time through Sunday along the coast. Readings Monday should crest past 70, still at least a few degrees below normal.
“I’m not going to be sitting on the beach,” said Dean Iovino, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly. He added that the wind pattern also may stir up rip currents.
» READ MORE: Ripcurrents have been an ongoing hazard at the Shore
After Saturday, the outlook becomes more problematic, what Iovino called a “low-confidence forecast,” as the entire region likely will be caught in a buffer zone between a fair-weather high pressure system to the north and a storm to the south.
‘Not a washout’
The uncertainties notwithstanding, on the mainland both Saturday and Sunday are looking exquisite, with sun and temperatures well into the 70s and only “slight chances” for showers late Sunday night and Monday.
It remained unclear how far north any rain would penetrate, and for now the forecasts are calling for a generic chance of showers at the Shore on Sunday and Monday. The moist air also might brew some fog at the coast, said Jim Eberwine, former weather service marine specialist and now an emergency management official in Absecon.
In any event, Iovino said, the weekend is “not a washout by any means.”
» READ MORE: Free food ... and tolls ... kick off Memorial Day weekend
The water is ... not warm
Conditions, however, won’t be especially inviting to those who would like to break the seasonal ice by plunging into the surf.
The winds are likely to agitate the surf, raising the rip current risks, said Iovino. “It looks like they’ll be at least moderate each day over the weekend,” he said.
And the water temperatures still are recovering from winter (such as it was), and are about 60 degrees. That’s normal for this time of the year. On average, they don’t reach 70 degrees until August.
The air temperatures, on average, don’t reach the mid-80s until mid-July.
This is the “unofficial” start of the season for a reason.