Forecast Discussion: Rainy Friday
PHILADELPHIA WEATHER THREE DAY OUTLOOK
LOCATION FRI NIGHT SAT NIGHT SUN
Philadelphia/I-95 78 63 74 60 77
N & W Burbs 76 62 74 58 76
Lehigh Valley 75 61 73 57 75
Jersey Shore 73 64 70 58 74
South Jersey 76 63 72 58 76
4 PM Update:
...FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT...
A COLD FRONT WILL ENTER THE MID ATLANTIC THIS EVENING AND THEN STALL...ALLOWING A DEVELOPING AREA OF LOW PRESSURE TO RIDE ALONG THE FRONT. THE AIR ACROSS NEW JERSEY...EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA...DELAWARE...AND NORTHEAST MARYLAND IS MOIST AND UNSTABLE. LOCAL RAINFALL OF ONE AND A HALF TO TWO INCHES IN AN HOUR OR LESS WILL BE POSSIBLE...AND MAY LEAD TO FLOODING OF CREEKS...STREAMS...AND OTHER LOW LYING AREAS. NUMEROUS SUCH SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS MAY CROSS THE SAME AREA...ENHANCING THE FLOOD
THREAT.
A FLOOD FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR HEAVY RAIN ACROSS THE WATCH AREA...WHICH MAY LEAD TO FLOODING ALONG STREAMS AND CREEKS. IF YOU ARE IN THE WATCH AREA...CHECK YOUR PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS. KEEP INFORMED...AND BE READY FOR
ACTION IF FLOODING IS OBSERVED OR IF A FLOOD WARNING IS ISSUED.
After an impressive fireworks show last night courtesy of Mother Nature the sky today looks to be a bit less potent. Clouds will be in place for most of the day today and with that, temperatures will be kept down. Additionally, the threat of rain at any time in the area will hang over our heads. This is an umbrella day because of the 'any time, any where' potential of storms.What fell last night was impressive to say the least. Rainfall amounts were in 1 to 2" range for many in the area with some places doing better than that. I received 1.5" of rain in 15 minutes between 7:40 and 7:55 last night and nearly 2" in total. Because of the amount of moisture in the atmosphere and the lift caused by the approaching frontal boundary, any storms that do fire up today have the potential of dropping copious amounts of rain on any locales the storms pass through. Flooding in the typical spots in the region is certainly a concern today if storms continue to pass through any one spot or spots.
The front should begin to make progress through the region Friday night and clear the coast before noon on Saturday. It looks like Saturday will be a bit more damp than I first thought because of the slow progression of the front, but I do believe that Philadelphia and places west should see some sun on Saturday afternoon and should be able to squeak out a few decent hours of weather. The shore points, on the other hand, may not fare as well with getting nice weather on Saturday as clouds and even showers will hold serve for most of the day.
Sunday does to be the nicer of the two days as we should see a mix of clouds and sun and temperatures in the 73-77 range.
The early and middle parts of next week look dry as well as temperatures begin to moderate back towards 80 by Tuesday or Wednesday.
For those of you who enjoy the Chesapeake Bay... I thought the linked article was interesting in that it talks about the 'dead zone' phemonenon that pops up in various water ecosystems throughout the world.
According to the United Nations, there are about 150 such dead zones worldwide, including ones that pop up in the Chesapeake annually. Dead zones are caused by the decomposing of algae blooms in water. These algae blooms suck the oxygen out of the water, essentially making the area inhospitable for aquatic life. The one in the Gulf of Mexico can get as large as 18,000 sq. miles.
