More flooding downpours are possible in the Philly region. A heat advisory is in effect through Saturday.
Philadelphia is beginning to feel like Miami North.
Skin-clinging humidity, random downpours, heat indexes in triple figures, steamy nights. Welcome to Miami North.
The heat advisory for the entire region has been extended to 8 p.m. Saturday, with more random showers likely. As to when something resembling comfort returns to Philly, “That’s the million-dollar question,” said Matt Benz, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.
Similar conditions could persist into the late next week, he added.
Highs might not get much past 90, but with the atmosphere this steamy, head indexes up to 104 are possible. Camden County has posted a “code red” heat advisory, even though the conditions are not expected to approach the official criteria of two consecutive days of highs of at least 95 degrees.
Waves of air from the Gulf Stream and the Gulf, itself, continue to wash over the mid-Atlantic region, said Brian Hurley, senior branch forecaster at the federal Weather Prediction Center, in College Park, Md., adding that is going to continue.
On the plus side, drought conditions continue to ease, and officially in Philadelphia, rainfall since Jan. 1 is now about normal, recent rains having wiped out a significant rain deficit.
However, the rains have come in fits and starts and have been less generous in some areas, and overly generous elsewhere, and have had a knack for outwitting science.
Those random downpours are going to continue
“Multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms each afternoon and evening may become strong to severe,” the National Weather Service in Mount Holly warned Thursday.
Don’t expect much notice.
Case in point: Around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, the weather service posted a missive, “The threat for flooding has diminished tonight.”
Shortly thereafter, flood warnings went up for portions of all four of Philly’s Pennsylvania neighboring counties.
That followed afternoon downpours the caused extensive road flooding in Philly and neighboring areas as a corridor of heavy rain cut thought he city.
Michael Silva, a meteorologist in the Mount Holly office, was among those who hadn’t seen it coming.
“Before work, I was about to go out twice for walks,” Silva said. “Then I looked at the radar.”
Showers are possible late this afternoon and in the evening, said AccuWeather’s Benz, and they are likely to be more numerous and widespread on Friday.
The outlook for the weekend for Philly and the Shore
Saturday is expected to a clone of Thursday, as a so-called Bermuda high pressure system over the North Atlantic continues to lure steamy air northward. Winds circulate clockwise around centers of high pressure; thus, areas to the west of the center, where Philly happens to be, experience winds from the south and southwest.
Benz sees an outside chance that an approaching front provides a very temporary and modest measure of relief on Sunday. Don’t bet on it, however. He said it is going to encounter a whole lot of resistance along the way.
The outlooks are similar for the Jersey Shore, which is likely to be quite a popular destination this weekend.
