What’s behind the spell of rain and gloom around Philly, and when it will end

October on average has the most clear days of any month of the year in Philly. But on the day after Philadelphia set a daily record for chill with a high of just 53, it looks as if we’re about to go 0-for-5 in October 2022 on Wednesday.

On the fourth day of persistent rains, strong winds, and a day-for-night grayness, high tides on Tuesday forced some road closings at the Shore, as they had on Monday, said Vincent J. Jones III, the Atlantic County emergency chief.

And onshore winds, with gusts of 60 mph reported, over the weekend and Monday erased sands from beaches, Jones added.

However, despite wave after wave of rain moving across the region since early Saturday — close to four inches has fallen upon Philadelphia, half of that on Sunday when the city set an Oct. 2 rainfall record, with even more at the Shore — the region so far has escaped major flood damage.

Ocean City resident Ericka Ford, watching the storm-fomented waves with her 12-year-old daughter, spoke for residents throughout the region when she pronounced, “It’s pretty gloomy, and not fun.”

For most people, that’s an understandable sentiment, said John Lauriello, chair of the Thomas Jefferson University psychiatry and human behavior department. “I think it’s perfectly natural and normal for people to feel a little bit down on days like this,” he said.

So when might the sun remember what it does for a living? “Hopefully Thursday,” said Ray Martin, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly.

Hopefully?

Martin’s hedge is understandable. For the last four days, the region has been stuck under an atmospheric traffic jam at the level where winds steer weather systems, and it has been more resistant to dislodging than computer models or meteorologists anticipated.

» READ MORE: Dark days can lead to dark moods. Here's what to do about it

“Sometimes the atmosphere is free-flowing,” he said, “at other times, it just tends to slow.”

Although the remains of Hurricane Ian dissipated deep in Virginia on Saturday and have long lost their tropical identity, said Martin, at least a trace of Ian’s DNA is evident in this week’s rains.

He noted that tropical systems and their remnants usually zip by the region, but high pressure, or heavier air, to the north got in the way of Ian’s remnants as they became ingested by another system more typical of rain-makers up our way. That one has spun off the coast and has been throwing back all the rain.

The rain-and-gloom regime isn’t all that unusual: In fact, the region endured a similar spell last October.

» READ MORE: Rains in early September also helped ease the dry conditions

In early October, said AccuWeather Inc. senior meteorologist John Feerick, the temperature contrasts that generate and move wintry storms haven’t yet ripened. The result of that for weather systems is a kind of atmospheric rocking between the waves.

It’s not always a bad thing, said Martin. “Sometimes you’re on the sunny side of that” — witness the summer rain deficits that led to drought watches — “sometimes you’re on the rainy side.”

Despite the prodigious rain totals, no truly disruptive flooding has been reported.

Why? Much of the region was recovering from those precipitation deficits that developed during the summer. Plus, the rains have been spread out over multiple days, allowing the soils to sponge them up.

At the Shore, while the onshore winds and rains have removed sand and caused some road flooding, the beach towns have been spared major flooding.

Plus, late Monday the winds pivoted, and began blowing from the north, rather than directly off the ocean. Given the orientation of the coast south of Long Beach Island, Martin said, winds from the north actually would take waters offshore and even help the back bays drain.

» READ MORE: New Jersey remains under a drought watch

And farmers undoubtedly are grateful for nature’s watering.

All of New Jersey remains under a drought watch, but the rains likely have eased conditions in South Jersey. And it is likely that the portions of Philly and Bucks County that remain in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s abnormally dry zones will be liberated.

If the Phillies can end a playoff drought after 11 years, this drought may be on its way out, too.

Tuesday’s high in Philly was nearly 20 degrees below normal and beat the old record for a low daily maximum, 55 degrees, set in 2010, by a full two degrees.

However, after one more day of gloom and below-normal readings Wednesday, Thursday and Friday should be gorgeous with the highs in the low 70s and sun prevailing through the weekend.

While an estimated 3% of the population suffer from seasonal affective disorder, which is far more serious than rainy-day doldrums, for many around here relief may be imminent, said Lauriello.

For people who choose to spend time outside, ”I bet you if you had a really nice Saturday and Sunday, between the Phillies and the Eagles, ... their mood will lift.”

He did not say what might happen if the teams happened to lose.

Staff photographer Tom Gralish contributed to this article.