The weather in Philly will be a treat on Halloween and likely all the way through Election Day
This is slated to be the longest rain-less period in Philly in two years.
Whatever else may happen during the peak trick-or-treat hours Saturday, nothing frightful will be unfolding in the skies over the Philly region during which should be a peak foliage weekend.
In fact, it will look and feel a lot like the weather since Oct. 18: Save for some minor coastal flooding agitated by the moon, the atmosphere has been a sea of tranquility.
What has become an impressive rainless spell — the longest in two years — is forecast to persist at least through Election Day. And on Halloween don’t worry about airborne witches’ hats; winds should be negligible throughout the day and night.
Temperatures on Saturday around the time of the last sunset (5:59 p.m.) in the 2026 edition of daylight saving time are expected to be in the tolerable low 60s, and precipitation probabilities are at absolute zero.
A storm threat for early next week has “fizzled out,” said Joe DeSilva, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mounty, and in all likelihood it will remain dry at least through Election Day, with daytime highs Tuesday near 70 degrees.
“At some point this has to break down,” said Tom Kines, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. “It can’t stay like this forever.”
It won’t. The federal Climate Prediction Center suggests the dryness will go the way of campaign promises after Election Day, with above-normal precipitation accompanying above-normal temperatures through Nov. 11.
The rains would end a notable dry spell and end what has been a cut-and-paste forecast interlude for meteorologists..
The atmospheric tranquilizing agent for the region and much of the rest of the Eastern United States has been consistently high pressure, said DeSilva. The descending currents of high pressure, or heavier air, suppress clouds and rain.
Virtually no rain fell last week in the Northeast, the inter-agency U.S. Drought Monitor noted Thursday in its weekly update. Save for extreme eastern Burlington County, Philadelphia and the seven neighboring counties remained drought-free, despite the flip in region’s rain fortunes.
After two nasty days on Oct. 15 and 16 with rain and gusts to 44 mph in Philly, not a raindrop has fallen since.
The rain-less streak entered day 12 Thursday and is all but certain to reach at least 16. That would make it it the longest run of days without even an immeasurable “trace” — (technically, a single raindrop detected by an observing machine or a government contractor at Philadelphia International Airport would qualify) — since the 24-day streak that ended on Oct. 23, 2024.
Computer models on Thursday were suggesting this dry run may come to an emphatic conclusion by the end of next week with what the weather service is calling a “prolific” rainfall possible.
Enjoy the foliage in the meantime.
