Month nearly rainiest on record
Last month was the hottest on record in Philadelphia, and February of last year stacked up the most snow.
Last month was the hottest on record in Philadelphia, and February of last year stacked up the most snow.
By the end of the day, this month could be the wettest ever recorded in Philadelphia, according to the National Weather Service.
(For an earlier discussion of why the weather "has gone cuckoo" this year, go to: http://bit.ly/jXq3U3.)
With 12.34 inches - more than a foot - of rain so far, this month is already the second wettest.
Only September 1999, with 13.07 inches, saw more rain.
That record could get drowned out today.
Today's forecast calls for scattered showers and thunderstorms that could produce another inch of rain, even several inches in the hardest-hit spots. Some areas, though, might get very little.
Parts of South Jersey got even more indundated early this week.
At Seabrooks Farm in Cumberland County, 10.64 inches were recorded just for Sunday and Monday - the kind of event that happens once in 200 years, said meteorologist Mitchell Gaines of the weather service.
On Sunday, the rainfall at Philadelphia International was less than half as much - 4.9 inches - and still finished as the fifth wettest day on record for the city.
Official monthly records aren't available for cities in South Jerseys, except for Atlantic City, and rainfall Gaines said.
In Trenton, no record has been set. The total of 6.56 inches this month is high enough for second place for August, but still well behind the 10.07 inches of two years ago.
In Allentown, another place such records are kept, the 6.69 this August is only enough for 12th place for the month, far back of the 12.1 set in 1955.
Last month, the average temperature was 82.4 degrees, beating the mark set in July 1994 by 0.3 degrees.
The 21 days hitting 90 or higher tied another record, set in 1952 and reached again in 1995 and 1998.
The record 55.1 inches of snow that fell in February 2010 beat the old mark, set in January 1996, by 21.3 inches.
That was greater than the entire-season snowfalls of all but three winters, according to Inquirer writer Tony Wood in his "Weather or Not" blog.
