A Heat Wave to Remember

There is no other way to put it, this was an impressive bout of heat that invaded PA.  The last time we had temps this high in Harrisburg was 1988.  Yesterday's 103 at KMDT was an impressive figure, especially with the sultry dewpoints in the mid to at times upper 70s!  I clearly recall that 104 in 1988, but I wasn't in Harrisburg.  I was struggling on the Black Forest Trail climbing out of Foster's Hollow with a backpack filled with enough goods for a month...and we were only doing a 3 day trip!  The Tiadaghton Forest could afford little relief from the intense heat of those summer days... it was still hot even there at elevation!  That is why the 97 at BFD might be one of the most impressive maxes shown on the map.  At ~2,500 feet, it is difficult to make the mercury climb so high.  Jerome, Dubois set its all time max record yesterday with a 101!  The top number is the high; the bottom number is the low.  Newark's 108 does not show on this map, but that is not as impressive as that concrete jungle simply has no place to hide from the July sun.  Scrutinize the map for yourselves and think that you may not see a map like this again even if you live to be 100 yrs old!

Well, this heat is now going to SLOWLY fade and as it does the threat of some very heavy rainfall is in the cards.  But it is one of those situations where we could see 5 inches of flooding rains or less than 0.10 inch of a near miss.  Example, Chicago broke its string of heat by receiving over 8.0 inches of rain in less than 2 days.  That is the type of thing we could see here anytime from Saturday pm through Monday.  PA is now on the edge of the "heat bubble" and when you live on the edge, wild things, including flash flooding torrents of rainfall can happen!  The model does see the invasion of the cooler air from the north and east (backdoor front) and below is the morning low temps for Tuesday morning.  Note the temps of Lakes Erie and Ontario are warmer than than the surrounding air mass.  We can only hope!  Aaaahhhh!

Not only Tuesday with those glorious lows (20 degrees cooler than this Friday morning's low!), Wednesday is also progged to be below normal for max temps.  Take a looksie!

However, there will be no rest for the weary as the medium range promises yet another and possibly last surge of major heat back towards the northeast.  Both the Euro and GFS show anomalous warm temps beginning late next week and peaking on/about Aug 1 as seen below.

In closing, this July to date has been quite hot and dry.  I leave you with this graphic that simply shows 16 of the days in July thus far have had max temps above normal.  If you want a number, we are 4.13 degrees above normal for the month through the 22nd.  And it's been dry at least here in Etters where I've received 0.77 inches of rain to date and only a trace in the last 14 days!  That does not bode well for our gardening friends....but some rain is likely going to help usher out this "once-maybe-twice-in-a-lifetime" heat wave!

 

Enjoy your Saturday afternoon activities....which for me will be watching the Phillies in my AC comfort set at 80F!  Yesterday I was thermometer watching; this afternoon I'll be watching federal budget shenanigans and baseball.

Smitty

AA:  Record heat across all of PA and the northeast on Friday.  May not see those high temps again in our lives that widespread in our region!  Enjoy the weekend!