ChescoWx

0.32" so far today in East Nantmeal with splits of 78.4/63.7 - down in Sea Isle City on the beaches the fog burned away and a beautiful day with splits of 71.5/64.1 have only used the AC for 1 day so far this year at the beach!

Here in East Nantmeal Twp. between last night's t-shower and this AM's showers 0.32" of new rain so far with more possible later this AM. MTD rainfall now up to 2.47" which is +0.96" above normal. YTD rainfall stands at 23.76" which is 2.98" above normal.

Lots of 90's across the area of course KMQS (87.8) and East Nantmeal (86.3) still no luck...although we were warmer than MPO!!

Power finally back in East Nantmeal!! Great stretch of weather on the way! Beaches are again crowded down the shore in Sea Isle City although at 84 degrees and a DP at 73 too warm for me...cooler tomorrow but still a land breeze.....

A little late but below is the Climate Summary for May 2020 for Western Chester County PA along with some interesting weather factoids Average Temperature 58.6 (0.7 degrees below normal) ( Avg High 67.4 / Avg. Low 49.8) This was our 2nd consecutive below normal month following the April 49.4 avg (0.5 below normal) The 2 month average of April and May mark the 24th coldest first 2 months of Spring in the Chester County history (1894-Present) and coldest since April/May 2008 Rainfall = 2.88" (1.40" below normal) YTD Rainfall stands at 21.29" (2.02" above normal) Highest Temperature was the 81.3 on the 15th - this was our 1st 80 degree day of the year and represents the 7th latest initial 80+ day since records began in 1894. The latest was on 5/27/37 Lowest Temperature was the 31.3 reading on the 9th - our last 32 degree reading of the season occurred on the 10th - this was only our 78th sub freezing low in the 2019/20 winter season normal is 115 days The 46.5 maximum recorded on the 9th was the 6th lowest May max daily reading in the historical climate data set

Just a beautiful day down at the Jersey Shore in Sea Isle City NJ....I don't think I have ever seen the beach so crowded on a weekday in June before! Wondering if the fact folks are not tied to their kids being in class in getting a lot more folks to show up on the beaches of NJ much earlier than normal....let's hope so!. It briefly touched 80 degrees around noon on the beaches but most of the PM was spent in the low 70's down to 70 degrees now while 6 miles inland they swelter at 86 degrees....back in East Nantmeal we are still without power.....would be a tough day without AC back there with temps topping out at 83.8 with high humidity.

0.72" from the storm yesterday and overnight in NW Chesco...beautiful day across both NW Chester County and the Jersey Beaches. Back in Chester County the splits were 76.4/62.6 while down in Sea Isle City NJ we had our 1st 80 degree day here on the barrier islands since last September 23rd when we hit 81.7. The beach was mighty crowded today with little if any social distancing evident on the beach... With high tide today being during the prime beach hours folks were crowded in.....the town of Sea Isle is really hopping as we start to move back to normal....restaurants are preparing for the upcoming opening of outdoor dining with tables being set up....should be a nice next few days down the shore!! Great to see how many people are here and getting back to normal!!

Still chilly at the Jersey Shore with a SSE wind still off the water - mid 60's here while just 6 miles inland at Dennisville NJ up to 80 degrees. Back in East Nantmeal Chester County PA near 80 degrees with a 71 degree DP....

Another day in the fog down at the Jersey Shore in Sea Isle City with a 66.3/61.3 split and no measurable rain...brutal weather on the beaches...however - back in NW Chesco wife is complaining about the humidity and urge to fire up the AC...splits today in Chesco were 73.9/67.0 with 0.21" of rain in the gauge. Through today NW Chesco is at 2.16" of rain here in May which is 1.74" below normal...however YTD we are at 20.57" which is 1.68" above normal through May 28th vs. 1983-2019 averages. Looking like a good shot an our 2nd consecutive below normal month with May running at exactly 1.0 degrees below normal through today in Chester County.

Interesting evening here on the Jersey shore in Sea Isle City NJ....the colder than normal off shore 53 degree water temps making for a painful spring at the beaches. While 5 miles inland today were in the 70's here on the barrier islands no better than the upper 50's for most of our day....we finally cleared out for an hour this evening but as you can see on the attached video the marine layer cloud bank and fog were just off shore and came rolling back in over a 45 minute period this evening....me thinks it will be a tough week to realize any warmer temps here on the Jersey beaches no matter what we see just inland.... SicHi.20200525_183500.wmv

fake news!

Beautiful day down the shore in Sea Isle City - temp has bounced around a lot depending on wind direction. When I got to the beach it was 76.2....30 minutes later we dropped to 66.3 and now back up to the high for the day and warmest so far this year at 77.7....backdoor front will move through later bringing us back to chilled reality tomorrow with temps struggling to make it out of the 50's in SIC

Temp continued to fall but a surprisingly beautiful day on the beach with a lot more folks on the beach than a normal week leading into Memorial Day here in Sea Isle City NJ....I took a walk along the chilly water and noted only 1 person among the many many hundreds of folks wearing a mask....tough to tell if social distancing is working as families don't need to do so...so no judgements on my part....overall I spent 3 hours on the beach and despite temps in the low 60's ....with a warm July like sun in the sky it was incredibly comfortable and folks were very happy to be out and enjoying the late spring day on the beach! Looks like most of this week will be quite unfriendly for beach goers with a below normal surf temp and an onshore flow well underway....in fact we are now down to just above 60 degrees here at 6pm

Couple snow flurries and squalls during the day - our high made it up to 46.5 here in East Nantmeal Township...this is the 6th lowest maximum daily May reading in Chester County history....freeze warning up again for tonight but suspect the higher spots like here may stay just above freezing as the Wxsim indicates.

New Western Chester County PA elevation record (1983 to Present) low 31.3 at 6:15am breaking the old mark of 34 set in 1985. Well off the all-time Chesco record of 25.0 set in 1947. Also storm total of 0.68" of rain and indeed some overnight snow showers and flurries on May 9th - amazing!! A chance of more flurries and snow showers later as we make a run at the coldest May high temp in Chester County history today! Some other chilly Chesco factoids to munch on. Today's freezing temperature marks the 15th latest freeze in 127 years of records back to 1894. The average final freeze in Chester County is April 18th. The latest freeze in County history was the 32 degree reading on May 28, 1927. This is also the latest freeze in the last 24 years with 1996 seeing it's final freeze on May 14th at 30 degrees....of interest just 5 days later Chesco began a 3 day heat wave from May 19 (91)- 20 (94) and 91 on the 21st of 1996

It was 51 on that date in Chester County that was also the coldest max temp ever recorded in Chesco in June

So again how incredibly rare are the cold temperatures tomorrow across Chester County PA? Tomorrow will be only the 14th May day since record keeping began way back in 1894 with a high temperature only in the 40's. It will be our 1st May day with a high in the 40's since May 12, 2008. If my WXSIM forecast high of 43 degrees were to verify that would tie for the coldest May max temperature EVER on record which was set on May 1, 1963! My NWS point and click is 44 degrees....that would tie for the 2nd coldest May day ever set back on May 5, 1917

So how unusual is this cold May in Western Chester County PA? very! On top of the potential of snow in the air on Friday and Saturday in May - an extremely rare event in the climate change era....or heck any era climate change or not! We are well on the way to the latest 80+ degree reading in at least the last 38 years here in Chester County. Already through today this is the 5th latest 80+ degree reading so late into May. In looking at the longer range models it looks increasingly possible that we will set a record for the latest 80+ day in County history. Below are the latest such readings #1 - 5/22/1988 / #2 - 5/20/1984 / #3 - 5/19/1997 - 5/19/1992 - 5/19/2019 / #4 - 5/10/1987 - #5 - TBD here in 2020

In NW Chester County PA at East Nantmeal Township we made it up to 77.9 degrees our warmest high temperature since the 87.6 back on October 2nd....of course this was nowhere close to any records as as recently as 2 years ago we made it to 90.3 degrees here in East Nantmeal and you know how rare that ever happens even in the soaring hills of NW Chesco even in the middle of summer....with the all-time record high for Chester County being the 91.0 degree reading on the 3rd of May back in 1913.

Our warmest April Temperature so far this month is only 72 degrees....this is the lowest max reading in the month of April in the last 37 years. To put that in context in those 37 years we have see a max temp over 90 degrees 2 times....over 80 degrees 20 times and in the 70's 14 times. Here in Chester County while a below normal month and our 1st such month since November 2019... it was however only 0.4 degrees below normal

With today's 53.0/39.5 split this marks our 14th straight day with below normal temperatures here in NW Chester County PA....to put this in perspective the last time this happened was the 14 below normal days recorded between March 5th-18th in 2018. Couple of great shots attached of the sunset on the SJ Beaches of Sea Isle City and here across the soaring peaks along the Welsh Mountain Anticline in NW Chester County PA

Sleet coming down here in NW Chesco with the temp at 39.4 - (WXSIM had in in the forecast last night) can't remember sleet this late in the season....might be harder to get sleet in late April than Snow....

Low this AM was 33.1 (WXSIM had 33.9) NWS had 29 For the month we are still 0.7 degrees above normal - looking ahead a pretty good shot at finishing the month below normal temp wise....this would be the 1st below normal month since November 2019 and only our 8th below normal month in the last 30 months!!

Thanks Greenskeeper! The heat island certainly skews the data warmer in data from the major city airport sites

Hey guys, So I thought I would analyze the last 13 decades back to the 1890's to see if the first quarter winter months (January-March) outside of the Philadelphia heat island in the more rural areas of the Philadelphia suburbs during the peak winter months of January through March have shown any signs of warming or cooling or more or less snowfall. Keep in mind snowfall amounts are not seasonal totals only January through March totals. Below is a chart with the analysis of the data. Of interest our most recent complete decade from 2010-2019 was the coldest first quarter since the 1980's! I did not expect to see that!! The warmest Q1 decade was the 1930's with the coldest being the 1970's. The snowiest was the 1890's followed closely by our most recent complete decade of the 2010's. Overall not surprisingly there appears to be no significant Q1 warming evident outside of the urban heat island impact in SE PA...just typical variability and expected cyclical trends. Snowfall appears to have a stronger cyclical signal with a general fall in snowfall totals from the turn of the 20th century...reaching a low point in the 1930-1950 period with a gradual increase in snowfall through our most recent decade of the 2010's. If I am reading the tea leaves correctly based on cyclical weather I suspect we could be entering a period of declining snowfall over the next 5 decades through the 2060's....with snowfall amounts beginning to climb again starting in the 2070's. Our most recent winter season of 2019/20 may be a sign of the seasons to come as our 5.8" of snow in Chester County PA this season was our 3rd lowest total in history. If these historical trends are indeed cyclical....for many on this forum over 30 years old who love snow - you may be in for some tough sledding (meaning relative to our most recent decade little snow) for the rest of your lives....for the younger folks born since the turn of the century you might at least begin to see snowfall increases as you reach your social security (if it still exists) age in the 2070's.