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.

[The Iceman]

13 hours ago, Psychguy said:

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.

I just got back from the low country south carolina for 2 weeks so the humidity honestly doesn't feel that bad compared to down there lol it is hot though! 

 

Side note, I'm not asthmatic but I'm noticeably breathing heavier when doing activity already and my eyes are very irritated.  Be careful out there everyone, I think it's only supposed to get worse today and tomorrow.

[Hurricane Agnes]

Fell short of any triple digits here in NW Philly yesterday but did make it up to 96 after a 73 low.  it was still brutal with the humidity and dps into the upper 70s... until some convective outflow boundary from the upstate storms, washed down over the city and knocked the dps down almost 10 degrees.

Currently hazy, smokey and 80 with dp 72,

[ChescoWx]

Yesterday was the 5th day this month and season that I recorded a 90+ temperature here in East Nantmeal. This is the 6th most 90+ days I have recorded in a summer season over the last 23 summers. The most being 10 in 2011 with the summers of 2004/2014/2015/2022/2023 seeing no days touching 90 degrees at all. Many spots maybe not the higher ridge locations like EN should reach 90 again although the well-advertised smoke from the Ontario fires could potentially limit daytime heating a bit. We cool back to near normal on Friday and below normal over the weekend and through Monday. Some small rain chances are around this evening but much better chances of widespread rain on Saturday into Saturday Night. We could see widespread totals of much needed rain of at least an inch.

[The Iceman]

ensembles and OP's are showing a stalled out front situation towards the end of the month. right now it stalls slightly off shore with several waves of LP riding along the front. A lot of times the models are too progressive pushing fronts through this time of the year so could be something to watch. Almost all of the ensembles have prolific rain totals just offshore but would not take much for that parade of lows to come inland. Regardless, it looks much more active again beginning this weekend. It's funny, I went away for 2 weeks and before I left it was hot and dry then we had all that rain while I was gone and nothing since I've been back home. Starting to feel rain cursed lol