Record for chill set first day of summer

National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, New Jersey, said on its home page.

The temperature is all about the dominating pattern, and with the exception of a couple of days that the temperature spiked, the pattern this month has continued to funnel chilly air into the region from source zones to the northwest, north and the northeast.

Overall at the airport, the monthly average temperature is 69.5 degrees, 2.7 below normal. The normal is higher than in previous decades, so overall the temperature is near the fullterm historical average.

Only four days this month have been above each day’s normal, with only one significantly so. That was June 2 with a temperature spike to 95 degrees at the airport, for now the only 90-degree day in 2023.

The weather service calculates normal as the averages of the previous three full decades, which is currently 1991 through 2020, and there were a lot of warm years last decade to push normal higher than the 1981 to 2010 data set.

The lowest high temperature date record for June 22 is 65 degrees from 1915.

By midafternoon Thursday, the temperature at the airport was 67 degrees.

What’s next, drought recap

AccuWeather’s long-term forecast shows the potential for showers and storms through Tuesday, with humidity increasing to a more summerlike level and the low temperatures coming up.

But a cool front is likely Tuesday, knocking back the temperature a few degrees and the humidity to a more comfortable level through the end of the month.

It’s not likely that fullblown summer will be held back for much longer.

The forecast beyond that isn’t very reliable but reasonably comfortable conditions remain in the place, for now, in the forecast for the first several days of July.

Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection-issued drought watch remains in place with its urging of voluntarily usage.

Rainfall frequency began to pick up shortly before the watch was issued a couple weeks ago. Many counties in the eastern two-thirds of Pennsylvania showed temporary improvement in the precipitation deficits, but many of those are now back in the 26% to 50% deficit range for 2023.

Delaware County is one of the few exceptions. It remains in the 11% to 25% deficit category.

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