Metro columnist John Bolaris
Record rains, floods, heat, storms and yes, there’s more to come.
Check out some of these records. They don’t lie.
It was the wettest June of all time since the weather service starting keeping records dating back to 1872. Philly picked up 10.56 inches of rain. That’s over 7 inches above the norm. In just one day, on June 7, Philly picked up what we would normally recieve for the entire month, a record smashing 3.50 inches.
And just today, the city was swamped with yet another record rain event—the wettest July day of all time.
A heat wave consists of three or more consecutive days of 90 degrees and above. So far this summer season, we have had four heat waves, with the summer inferno peaking with eight consecutive days of heat stretching from July 14 to 21, topping off at 98 degrees on July 18. Combined with the humidity, it felt more like 110.
Heat is the number one weather phenomenon that kills more than anything else, including hurricanes and tornadoes. From June 23 to July 24, we never dropped below 70 degrees— another record. We broke the heat wave with record rain on July 23, over 3 inches. On July 17, our temperature never dropped below 80 degrees—another record.
Widespread severe storms have pounded parts of our region with damaging winds, hail and deadly lightening. Our average high temperature so far for the month of July has been hovering around 88.9. Miami has been cooler.
That my friends, is weather insanity. For you global warming naysayers, think again.
Now get ready for the sequel … August. We will get a nice break for the rest of July and then August will arrive on Thursday with a surge of tropical humidity igniting our atmosphere with storms, possibly severe. Heat will smother us on Friday, followed by another possible round of severe storms this weekend.
And finally, by September, the hurricane season will be in full gear. Will one strike the east coast? Probabilities are running above the norm. I will be following the tropics closely and keep you posted in Metro and on my twitter @johnbolaris.
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