Philly temperature sets a record at 98 degrees, but a damp, cool Memorial Day weekend is on tap
A major cooldown is coming. Temperatures might not get out of the 50s on Saturday.
The official temperature got all the way to 98 degrees in Philadelphia at 4:41 p.m. on Tuesday, and not only was it a record for a May 19, it was the highest reading for a May day in 150 years of recordkeeping.
“I knew we could do it,” said Patrick O’Hara, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly.
While the heat was impressive, the air wasn’t especially steamy, he noted, and the heat index didn’t vary much from the air temperature.
Highs are expected to get into the 90s again Wednesday, with a heat advisory and a code orange air-quality alert for ground-level ozone remaining in effect.
But in keeping with the erratic behavior of the spring of 2026, major changes are coming. Highs on Thursday are forecast to be about 30 degrees lower than Tuesday’s. Then it gets cooler.
On Saturday, the highs might not get past the mid-50s, with as much as 1 to 1.5 inches of rain on the weekend, said Chad Merrill, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.
In short, those heading to the Shore for the traditional unofficial start of summer on Memorial Day weekend can expect some traditional damp and chilly weather.
The forecast for the next several days
The weather service forecast calls for a high in the mid-90s on Wednesday, but the temperature might not quite get there, O’Hara said.
Strong thunderstorms are expected late in the day or at night, with an outside chance that they could become severe — with gusts to near 60 mph possible — according to the government’s Storm Prediction Center.
The likeliest time would be between 4 and 6 p.m., Merrill said.
They would be ignited by a potent front that would portend another change in the region’s weather fortunes.
“It will be quite a different experience,” O’Hara said.
Temperatures are forecast to get no higher than the mid-60s Thursday and Friday.
Any rain would have some benefits
The weekend outlook “favors a large-scale rain event,” Merrill said, with up to 1.5 inches of rain possible.
In the meantime, some rain is possible on each day through Monday.
Rainfall in the last 60 days in Philadelphia was about 40% of normal, with similar deficits in the surrounding counties, according to the Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center.
The U.S. Drought Monitor has the entire region in “severe drought.”
While drought conditions aren’t going away in a hurry, Merrill said, the next several days should help to at least ease deficits, if not ruin weekend plans.
