ChescoWx

Today's AM Low 61.2

Low this AM was 55.8 - lowest since the 52.7 on June 16th (think we need to add Phillies and Flyers Playoff pushes to the sub title of this thread)

August and Summer climate summary for Western Chester County PA. With an average temperature of 73.5 August 2020 finished at 1.3 degrees above normal (43rd warmest August on record) 8.36" of rain was 3.99" above normal - this was the 15th wettest August since records began in 1894 For the summer months (Jun-Jul-Aug) here in Western Chester County we finished with an average temperature of 73.7 This is the 17th warmest summer since 1894 Of interest only 4 of the 17 warmest summers have occurred since 1988 and the top 5 all before 1956 Top 5 warmest summers were (1900 - 75.8 / 1901 - 75.0 / 1944- 75.0/ 1955 - 75.0 and 1943 -74.9)

Indeed....why we need to be careful with what is truly warming based on what we now deem "official" sites....hence my analysis

Not that any one location either supports or refutes climate change (IMO... of course climate it is always changing - but it's just cyclical) However, If summer (June-July-Aug) ended today here in the leafy Western burbs of Philadelphia (35 miles west of PHL airport) our current summer average temperature of 73.8 degrees would represent our warmest summer in the philly burbs outside of the PHL Airport heat island since 2002 and 16th warmest since records began here in Chester County in 1894. I use the NWS Coop data set and my data which represents continuous daily data since January 1st , 1894. Of note there is some relative elevation differences that may account for some of the differences with Chester County data being observed at over 650ft ASL while PHL Airport lies near sea level on the Delaware River. The top 2 hottest summers? way back in 1900 & 1901. I also did some data analysis (see below) comparing the average suburban temperatures by decade outside of the PHL airport heat island impact to the official PHL readings. I only had PHL decade data for the last 70 years (7 decades) As you can see there has not been much warming in fact a clear warmer cycle in the early part of the 20th century followed starting with the 1940's with 4 straight decades with declining temps and now the last 4 decades starting with the 1980's showing warming....but nowhere near like the PHL heat island is indicating - in fact the 1990's were exactly the same as the 1st decade of the 20th century. While the 2010's were the warmest decade it was only by 0.3 degrees. It is interesting to note the much sharper and consistent rise at the PHL airport.

f the summer (Jun-Aug) ended today this would be our 18th warmest summer since 1894 with an average temperature at 73.8. With the somewhat cooler weather on tap to close out August thinking we may just miss out on the top 20

AM Low 66.6 on VP and 65.8 on Ambient - just missed heavier rains to my west and south last evening. While it's been 2x normal rainfall this month here...nowhere near the all-time wettest August of 17.81" back in 1955....however some spots to the south and west are already into double digit rainfall for the month!

Our morning low today was 61.3. Today in Western Chester County marks the 1st time our average low dips into the 50's for the 1st time since June 26th. Our average low will not touch the 40's until September 30th

AM Low this morning 65.0

Nice day in Western Chester County PA and a perfect day down at the Jersey Shore in Sea Isle City NJ - see my attached drone shot in SIC late in the day with a firm sea breeze all day and a high of only 76.3 In Chester County PA - today actually marks the last day we average a high temperature above 80 degrees....the next day we average over 80 degrees here in the philly burbs will be on June 24, 2021

The 1st day that failed to at least reach 70 degrees since June 2nd here in Western Chester County PA - also only the 2nd chilliest high on August 16th since 1983. With today's rainfall we are now 124% of normal rain this year