Central PA Spring 2026 Discussion/Obs Thread

[Yardstickgozinya]

1 minute ago, Yardstickgozinya said:

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the legendary., Punxsutawney Bill. He also made the same call.   

Then again, he predicted a snowstorm too

[Yardstickgozinya]

He's a mythical creature from south-central. pennsylvania.  It only comes out of its hole during snow and thunderstorms, and can often be seen digging in mulch.  5'7" 190 lbs of smelly, harry, man beast. Like other hole dwelling primates, it seeks out psychoactive plants and you generally don't want to see it anywhere near your house. It's generally extremely friendly but can become highly aggressive when agitated. I highly recommend you don't shoot at it if you see it, that smelly basterds packing heat.

[Yardstickgozinya]

Spc brings back the chance of some thunderstorms on sunday.  Right now they have idea of deeper convection in far western pennsylvania. Hopefully plenty of sunshine breaks through Saturday and Sunday.for those of us who need it.  SPRINGS BACK BABY !!!

 

https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day3otlk.html

 

[mahantango#1]

Drought update: I have received 4.63 precipitation so far this month and 6.47 for the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrea Michaels FOX43 

 

 

DROUGHT IMPROVEMENTS

A little good news for parts of the state! This morning, the weekly Drought Monitor Update was released, and there are some improvements.

The most notable change was in South Central PA, where much of Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry counties saw improvement, along with portions of Dauphin and Lebanon counties. They went from D1 (Moderate Drought) to D0 (Abnormally Dry).

The far eastern Lehigh Valley saw spottier improvements, going from a D2 (Severe Drought) to D1.

Hopefully more rain will keep it coming!

[pawatch]

First day of spring. 25 degrees and a frost.

Sounds like a not bad weekend.

[Jns2183]

This is incredible stuff JNS, just outstanding. I’ve known about the MDT/CXY seasonal and diurnal temperature differences you outlined but never laid it out so eloquently and obviously didn’t have the data to back it up. The other data you put meaning to is fascinating as well. Excellent work all the way around. I did want to mention that we’ve had several discussions over the years about the Harrisburg climate site changing locations but no one has ever done a deep dive on the data as you have here. Tremendous work and extremely informative.  You have a real talent for this. Bravo, good sir. 

Outside the modern era was surprisingly hard to find times those two stations overlap and had good data but I did it was from 1948 to 1965 and I finished that analysis last night along with instead of just doing daily I did an hour by hour one because I had hourly data for that era and for this era so I will have a comparison up soon.

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[Jns2183]

I present an interactive exploration of the weather from 2 stations 3.3 miles apart, one on a ridge the other on the lowlands with just a Susquehanna separating them. Note that is not my real last name I just didn't want to put my last name out there right now.

https://jns182wx.github.io/kmdt-cxy-analysis/

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[Jns2183]

Drought update: I have received 4.63 precipitation so far this month and 6.47 for the year.

 

 

 

   

 

       

Andrea Michaels FOX43 

    DROUGHT IMPROVEMENTS A little good news for parts of the state! This morning, the weekly Drought Monitor Update was released, and there are some improvements. The most notable change was in South Central PA, where much of Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry counties saw improvement, along with portions of Dauphin and Lebanon counties. They went from D1 (Moderate Drought) to D0 (Abnormally Dry). The far eastern Lehigh Valley saw spottier improvements, going from a D2 (Severe Drought) to D1. Hopefully more rain will keep it coming!

It's going to take a lot of rain to climb out of the 10-in hole we are in since last fall. Seeing plus two inches from March so far as nice but we need to build on that. Unfortunately the only way out I see is to have an incredibly stormy wet spring. It's funny as much as I looked into the '60s for snow I totally forgot that they were also note here in the summertime for a ridiculous drought for numerous years.

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[Jns2183]

Also that is my first attempt after doing a website. It's simple, but I'm sure I missed some bugs or something. I've also uploaded all the excels to the GitHub repository in public for anyone who wants to see the data

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[mahantango#1]

10 minutes ago, Jns2183 said:

It's going to take a lot of rain to climb out of the 10-in hole we are in since last fall. Seeing plus two inches from March so far as nice but we need to build on that. Unfortunately the only way out I see is to have an incredibly stormy wet spring. It's funny as much as I looked into the '60s for snow I totally forgot that they were also note here in the summertime for a ridiculous drought for numerous years.

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I guess we'll see what happens in the next 2 months, if we get above normal rainfall or continued drought conditions.

National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)

rntdoesSpo5u0961tf34873agc65c8c1camiht55i0m0c06uug02gf1f8f07 ·

 

New Seasonal Drought Outlook by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NOAA NWS Climate Prediction Center

Expected drought development: Every region within the West (Northwest, CA/NV, Rockies, Southwest, western Plains)

Improvement: Midwest, Mid-South, much of the East, Hawaii

Otherwise, drought persists. http://drought.gov/forecasts

 

U.S. National Weather Service (NWS)

[ChescoWx]

Happy Spring Equinox at 10:46am to those that celebrate! Some folks think this means we have equal amounts of day and night lengths. While those are not far too far apart today (Sunrise 707am /Sunset 7:15pm) it in fact is when the Sun crosses the celestial equator. Five of our last 6 days have featured below normal temperatures but we will see temperatures well above normal today with highs near 60 degrees. We stay mild through the weekend with rain chances ramping up tonight and again on Sunday night. We turn sharply chillier again toward the middle of next week.

[Mount Joy Snowman]

Low of 32. A little rain tonight and then a beautiful weekend. Onward. 

[Superstorm]

105 degrees in Phoenix. Ridiculous.


.

[ChescoWx]

Today back in 1958 the area was in the middle of the 2nd greatest snowstorm in Pennsylvania history. Below are the all-time 3 day snowstorms across our state. The top 2 storms both were in our local area with the Blizzard of February 1899 at Coatesville with 52.4" and the 50.0" just off the PA Turnpike at Morgantown leading the way. Of note that same storm in 1958 also featured the 49" that was recorded just off the PA Turnpike at Devault. I have also included the hand written NWS COOP March 1958 observations for both Morgantown and Devault.

[WmsptWx]

18 minutes ago, Superstorm said:

105 degrees in Phoenix. Ridiculous.


.

I would like 105 degrees lol

[Itstrainingtime]

4 hours ago, Yardstickgozinya said:

Spc brings back the chance of some thunderstorms on sunday.  Right now they have idea of deeper convection in far western pennsylvania. Hopefully plenty of sunshine breaks through Saturday and Sunday.for those of us who need it.  SPRINGS BACK BABY !!!

 

https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day3otlk.html

 

This might be the year it just wants to storm. On Wednesday's 1730 update, SPC specifically said that they anticipated no severe weather threats over the next 8 days. The very next day they issued a MRGL for the Ohio Valley, now this morning it's been upgraded again to a Slight. This might be a very active spring.