Philly-area rain totals varied dramatically, and drought conditions survived the storms

The storms took down trees and wires, flooded roads, spoiled a World Cup party, and set off a deluge of smartphone panic alerts. But they evidently didn’t come close to erasing the rain deficits throughout the Philly region.

Even with the additional light rains on Tuesday, bringing the two-day total to about 1.45 inches, officially Philadelphia’s rainfall for June has been barely above normal, and this is after an extraordinary streak of 10 consecutive months of below-normal precipitation.

And Monday’s storms exhibited a classic summer caprice. Areas of New Jersey and Chester County, both under state-declared drought emergencies, were all but stiffed, according to an analysis by the National Weather Service’s Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center. Northwestern Philadelphia and southeastern Montgomery County got as much as 2 inches.

The weather service’s Mount Holly office reported that totals within counties varied radically. In Bucks County, for example, 1.8 inches was measured in Bristol and just over a half inch in Doylestown. Across the river, 2.4 inches fell upon Sewell, and about 0.75 in Monroe Township.

“Some areas got it, some didn’t,” said Ben Casella, executive director of the New Jersey Farm Bureau. It can “rain here, but it may not rain on the other side of town,” he said.

Not all of that Monday rain was beneficial, said Andrew Frankenfield, educator with the Penn State Agriculture extension in Montgomery County. Some of the water in those downpours on Monday rushed to the gutters and didn’t stop to soak into the soil.

And those cloudbursts certainly weren’t beneficial to people routed from the World Cup fan fest in Fairmount Park, or to some motorists. Numerous water rescues were reported in the Wyncote section of Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, And the weather service noted several reports of flooded streets and rushing water up to a foot deep floating cars in Germantown.

Tuesday’s gentle rains, Frankenfield said, were more beneficial to the plant life, which is only going to get thirstier as the summer progresses.

Showers are possible Thursday, said Alex Staarmann, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, with a better shot Friday night and Saturday.

However, these may again be lottery-ball situations, something with which farmers are well acquainted.

Generally throughout the region through Monday, precipitation was running about 75% of normal, on average about 5 inches below normal, according to the river center, which bases its surveys on several measuring stations in each county.

The latest interagency U.S. Drought Monitor map had most of the region in “moderate drought,” but Cape May County and areas of New Jersey near Delaware Bay are in “extreme drought.” Those regions were all but shut out from the Monday downpours.

They evidently fared a bit better on Tuesday, with the Millville airport reporting about a third of an inch, and a half inch measured in Sea Isle City.

While the rains were welcome, the drought anxieties persist, Casella said.

“As we turn the calendar into July, the crops are going to need more moisture,” Frankenfield said.

“We certainly need more” rain, he said. “We can’t make it up in a week, we can’t make it up in a month. We’re concerned, but not alarmed.”