Century old high temperature record broken in Philly, gust to continue into the night

On a day when high temperatures broke might a 100-year-old record, powerful winds from the southwest gusted to 45 mph Friday afternoon. could gust to 50 mph during the afternoon, creating road hazards and perhaps causing scattered power outages, the National Weather Service warns.

At noon the official temperature already had reached 76, four shy of the record for the date, and winds were gusting to 37 mph.

The agency has issued a “wind advisory” for the entire region in effect from noon to 7 p.m. Wind advisories and warnings cover all of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Around here, winds are due to pick up before daybreak, with gusts above 20 mph during the morning, then howling into the 40s to near 50 in the afternoon.

Those could be hazardous for trucks, SUVs, and other “high profile” vehicles, the weather service says, and motorists should keep an eye out for assorted flying objects and debris on the roads.

Some scattered power outages are possible. But the fact that deciduous trees are still in budding phases and largely leafless will somewhat reduce the risks of branches ripping down power lines, said Sarah Johnson, a lead meteorologist at the weather service in Mount Holly.

“That will work in our favor,” she said.

Conversely, she added, shallow-rooted trees would be vulnerable because the ground is quite saturated.

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That’s the result of Wednesday’s record rains, and the dear-departed melted snows (remember those?).

After a warm front pushes through Friday, possibly setting off showers in the morning, temperatures are going to rocket toward 80, a level not reached in six months.

That would match the record for a March 26 in Philadelphia, set back in 1921, a Saturday during an extraordinarily balmy, and early, Easter weekend and the start of a rather incredible four-day period.

On that Sunday, the temperature made it all the way to 83, and 250,000 people attended the Easter Parade in Atlantic City, according to The Inquirer, as a threatened storm held off.

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“Old sol winked his eye at the predictions of the weatherman,” The Inquirer reported, adding that the storm “developed engine trouble or something over Wisconsin.” The story made no mention of forecasters blaming computer models.

On Monday, the temperature got back up to 82, but dropped all the way to 25 the next day, that tied Jan. 6 and 7, 2014, for the most-dramatic day-to-day temperature swing in records dating to 1874.

We are not about to experience a 1921 repeat.

After cold front arrives later in the day Friday, high temperatures during the weekend are expected to back off to the 60s, with a significant storm possibly affecting the region Sunday.

And nothing below freezing is in the extended outlook.