Storms Moving Through Pennsylvania Expected To Bring One To Three Inches

Recently, in both the blog and the journal, I have been mentioning how dry it has been around the area. For example, with the 0.13 inches of rain that fell this afternoon, South Plainfield had two consecutive days of measurable rainfall in the past 36 days. Showers that developed in Eastern Pennsylvania during the late morning, pushed through during the mid-afternoon.

Since June 13th, there have been only six days of measurable rainfall for a total of 1.75 inches, which is about an inch below normal for this time of the month. After a period of solid rainfall from April 23rd to June 13th where two thirds of the year to date rainfall fell, things have gotten dry again. Grass in the yard where the GWC WX Station sits has become dry and brown, and that is not the only place. Patches of brown grass could be seen at Waterfront Park in South Amboy too while needles from pine trees in Raritan Center have also dried up and become brown.

There has been a little more than 13.5 inches of rain so far this year. A far cry from last year, which had over 15 inches in the month of August alone. Even though comparing this year’s rainfall with last year’s is a bit unfair, the rainfall to date in 2012 has not been substantial enough, and the Garden State appears to be creeping back toward the beginnings of a drought. Thankfully, this latest round of severe weather wasn’t able to completely push out the humid air mass that has been controlling our weather for the past week.

The front that brought the strong and severe thunderstorms on Wednesday stalled out just to the south of our region. This has created an alleyway for a disturbance to ride along on. Storms are on the move in Central Pennsylvania after being in Southeastern Michigan, Eastern Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania earlier in the day. These storms are right now producing severe weather in Central Pennsylvania. Penny size hail and 40 mile per hour winds as well as heavy rains are possible with these storms. To the southwest in West Virginia, heavy weather is also being reported.

These storms shouldn’t be as severe when they arrived on our doorstep during the overnight hours on Friday. However, they will still pack a punch with heavy rain totaling anywhere from an inch to 3 inches. So, flooding is possible near creeks and poor drainage areas.