E PA/NJ/DE Summer 2026 Obs/Discussion

[Birds~69]

Smoke, triple digit temperatures and high dew points today....woo hoo!

[JTA66]

Earlier in the week my forecast high for today was 100F. It's been scaled back to 96F. Wonder if the haze from the wild fires is a factor?

84F/DP 72F

[Birds~69]

95F/DP 74F at 12:35pm

[Albedoman]

3 hours ago, JTA66 said:

Earlier in the week my forecast high for today was 100F. It's been scaled back to 96F. Wonder if the haze from the wild fires is a factor?

84F/DP 72F

Unfortunately, the Lehigh Valley will likely be even hotter today. The stiff, breezy westerly winds bringing wildfire smoke into the region are also acting much like a Santa Ana wind as they descend the Blue Mountains, warming and drying the air. Humidity is very low, and it's already 95°F at noon.

I wouldn't be surprised if Allentown and Reading reach 100°F or higher this afternoon, while the Philadelphia area may stay a few degrees cooler because it won't benefit from the same downslope warming effect.

[JTA66]

45 minutes ago, Albedoman said:

Unfortunately, the Lehigh Valley will likely be even hotter today. The stiff, breezy westerly winds bringing wildfire smoke into the region are also acting much like a Santa Ana wind as they descend the Blue Mountains, warming and drying the air. Humidity is very low, and it's already 95°F at noon.

I wouldn't be surprised if Allentown and Reading reach 100°F or higher this afternoon, while the Philadelphia area may stay a few degrees cooler because it won't benefit from the same downslope warming effect.

Guess it's a trade off. You get lower dews, we get slightly "lower" temps.

97F/DP 76F

[Albedoman]

this is what I mean by the winds

 

 

[Birds~69]

100F/DP 73F at 3:30pm

The wind is doing its job...certainly not calm.

[LVblizzard]

Some storms forming north of I-80 and moving southeast. One of them is severe warned. Let’s see how long they can hold together.

[BBasile]

Am I wrong in thinking that dew points this high used to be extraordinary for this area not that long ago?  I remember thinking low 70's was high, but now dews around 80F are just a common occurrence.  Yuck.  Currently:

[Tatamy]

Big time lightning with that cell in NW Northampton Cty right now.  484 lightning strikes in the past hour on my Tempest from storms in my area.

[LVblizzard]

Storms juuuuust missed my place in the western suburbs of Allentown. The cool outflow feels nice at least.

[Albedoman]

Swing and a miss again .  Here comes the drought emergency 

 

[JTA66]

Topped out at 97F. Any chance at triple digits was thwarted when haze/smoke/schmutz moved in.

92F/DP 73F

[Psychguy]

2 hours ago, BBasile said:

Am I wrong in thinking that dew points this high used to be extraordinary for this area not that long ago?  I remember thinking low 70's was high, but now dews around 80F are just a common occurrence.  Yuck.  Currently:

You really did need gills to breathe today... it's amazing how much you sweat just doing something simple like walking a few blocks to the neighborhood market to pick up a few things. Topped out at 98 officially here in Philly. Would have probably made a run at 100+ had there not been so many clouds... think most of the smoke stayed north today.

[Voyager]

1 hour ago, Albedoman said:

Swing and a miss again .  Here comes the drought emergency 

The Jordan Creek along route 100 looks about ready to dry up completely. I've never seen it this low before.