Another beautiful, sunny and dry Saturday is in the books. Once again we’ll be trending cool at night, with clear skies, light winds and low temperatures in the 40s in the city, and in the 30s in the ‘burbs.
Sunday will bring us another sunny to mostly sunny day, with highs rising above Saturday’s levels. In fact, expect most areas in the Delaware Valley to end up in the low to mid 70s, with the exception of higher elevations in the Poconos. Monday will bring us much of the same, with highs approaching 80 degrees.
On Tuesday we will be chasing the record high temperature of 83, which was set 104 years ago in 1920.
However, a cold front will move through on Wednesday, which will significantly drop our temperatures by about 20 degrees, back to the 60s where they belong this time of year.
The big story? The rain – or lack thereof.
We desperately need rain, unfortunately Wednesday’s cold front brings nothing but clouds as it moves overhead, leaving us in a race for the longest dry spell in Philadelphia history. The current streak is 29 days, 150 years ago, in the fall of 1874. There’s a good chance we’ll break that record.
Increasingly drier conditions have led to a moderate drought across most of southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and South Jersey. There is also a growing area of severe drought in central South Jersey and conditions are likely to reach severe drought criteria in the near future, triggering drought warnings for all of New Jersey. The last drought warning for the Garden State area was in 2022 and the last drought warning was in 2002.
We have seen no rain this month and since September 1st we have had just 0.77 inches of rain, putting us a whopping 5.71 inches below average for the fall season. It’s been 22 days since measurable rain has fallen in the Delaware Valley. If we continue this rainless streak through Monday, October 28, we will set a new record for the longest dry stretch in Philadelphia history.
These dry conditions combined with unseasonably warm temperatures and low humidity have also created increased fire danger throughout the area. Residents are urged to limit the use of fire outdoors.
Here’s your seven-day forecast:
Sunday: Nice. High 76, low 44.
Monday: Great warm-up. High 80, low 46.
Tuesday: Chasing records. High 82, low 53.
Wednesday: Sunny skies. High 79, low 50.
Thursday: Back to autumn. High 65, low 58.
Friday: Cooler, sunny. High 63, low 45.
Saturday: Seasonally cool. High 66, low 45.
NEXT Weather radars
Hourly forecast