Temperatures spring to 69 in Philly, warmest day in almost four months

The clocks don’t move ahead until Sunday morning, but the atmosphere is getting a jump on the spring-forward movement.

The official temperature at Philadelphia International Airport sprang to 69 Tuesday, the highest reading since Nov. 30.

“It’s certainly the nicest day in quite some time,” said Valerie Meola, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly. “I’m sure we feel its’s warmer than it actually is..”

Something approaching an encore is due Wednesday with an outside shot at a record on Thursday as readings will be around 70. That would be within reach of the all-time high for a March 11 in Philadelphia, which is 72, what Meola called “low-hanging fruit.” The records on other days this week are 80 or better.

With an eight-day stretch of dryness, the longest in two months, the routed snow and shadeless trees, the March sun had a field day. In fact, some precocious tree pollen, particularly from evergreens, is beginning to commute on the air, said Dr. Marc Goldstein, an allergist with the Asthma Center.

At the Shore, an onshore breeze off the ocean, where surf temperatures are around 40, could hold temperatures in the low 50s on Wednesday, forecasters said, and possibly even a few degrees lower. And on Thursday, some midlevel clouds could sabotage Philly’s run at a record, said Dave Dombek, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.

» READ MORE: Biggest snow of the season … so why wasn't it more disruptive?

That said, overall for the winter-loathers, the hazing period of well below-normal temperatures atop the aging snow is over — at least for now.

Not to dim the lights just as the party is starting, but a cool-down is likely for the weekend, and the long-range forecasts are suggesting more freeze-thaw pothole weather.

The government’s extended outlook leading up to the astronomical arrival of spring on March 20 sees the odds favoring below-normal temperatures in much of the country, with even better chances in Philadelphia and the rest of the Mid-Atlantic region.

Computer models have been seeing distant threats, centered on the equinox. Then again, when haven’t they?

“The models are all over the map,” said Dombek.

» READ MORE: Why Philly storm forecasts have been conflicting and constantly changing this winter

The models aside, the reality is that the odds are greatly against major snowfall from here on out and it’s quite possible that the flake sightings around here on Saturday represented a farewell tour.

The sun is getting ever stronger, the days ever longer, and any serious coastal storm is apt to import air from the Atlantic Ocean, which is becoming warmer by the day.

Only six snowfalls of seven inches or more in 136 years of records have occurred after March 10, and only four of those after March 15.The last occurrence was on March 20-21, 2018, when 7.6 inches was measured officially in Philadelphia, and that was the first time it happened in 60 years.

Philadelphia has never had a snowfall of more than a foot in March, although it had 19.4 inches on Easter weekend in 1915, or enough to cover the ears of the average Easter bunny.