Strong storms and winds expected Saturday afternoon in Philly as fall arrives, for real
There's an outside chance of a tornado. Expect lows in the 40s early next week.
After one of the warmer starts to an October in the period of record, something resembling autumn is about to visit the Philadelphia region, and it might make a dramatic entrance.
The government’s Storm Prediction Center has the region under a “slight risk” for severe storms Saturday afternoon, those with winds up to 60 mph or more, with an outside chance of a tornado, as a potent cold front crosses the region.
“You’ll definitely notice when it comes through,” said Jonathan O’Brien, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
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While the atmosphere’s instability isn’t all that impressive, he said, “We’ll probably get a line of showers and embedded thunder.”
In addition, the storm center said that conditions could favor “storm-scale rotation” and lists a a 2% chance of tornadoes in the region. “We can’t rule it out,” said O’Brien.
Behind the front, expect “a much different feel tomorrow,” he said.
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Overnight lows are expected to drop to near 50 early Sunday, and into the 40s Monday and Tuesday, with daytime highs in the mid-60s.
Those highs aren’t too much above the average overnight lows for the first half of the month. Save for Oct. 1, every day has had above-average temperatures, which are running 7 degrees above normal for the month.
All thermal comfort being relative, Sunday is likely to feel quite chilly, although temperatures will feel quite close to normal.