Flood warnings were issued for Philly and parts of the region, and a flood watch remained in effect until 1 a.m. Thursday
The rains come after what has been an impressive dry spell.
Downpours on Wednesday that interrupted what had been an impressive region-wide dry spell set off flood warnings for Philly and portions of the neighboring counties during the night.
In addition to the warnings, a flood watch for the entire region remained in effect until 1 a.m. Thursday.
Thunderstorms began rumbling into the region after 5 p.m., generating targeted downpours.
The National Weather Service reported that up to 3.5 inches had fallen in portions of the warned area, which included parts of the city and Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Burlington Counties. The warnings were in effect until 11 p.m.
The weather service reported that Frankford Creek in Philly had reached flood stage and that the rains had closed Pinewald Road in Burlington Township, and the Warren Street underpass at the River Line bridge in Edgewater Park.
“Someone probably gets a ton of rain out of this,” Dave Dombek, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. had warned. Maybe not a ton, but in some places it was several buckets’ worth.
While the heavy rains covered a large area, the flood watch was focused on the I-95 corridor, because “that’s just the area most prone to flooding,” said Alex Staarmann, meteorologist with the weather service office in Mount Holly.
That was all about paved surfaces and runoff; the weather service noted that the soils were pretty well dried out when the rains started.
Fortunately, the levels were low in the area’s waterways, thanks to what has been a virtual non-washout month for the entire region.
No rain had been measured in Philly this month, and not much elsewhere, as cool, dry Canadian air has dominated.
Temperatures in Philadelphia were below normal the first 10 days of the month, and this has been the coolest start to an August in 12 years. In Atlantic City, it has been the coolest start on record.
The air masses migrated from the Hudson Bay region, meteorologists said, and the cool-off came at a price — it imported plenty of unwanted wildfire smoke.
More August-like conditions returned to the region this week, and an approaching front wrung out some significant moisture from the atmosphere.
Additional showers are possible Thursday and Thursday night, and despite those ominous outlooks last week, no extreme heat is in the extended outlook.