When will the heat and storms come to an end?
Here’s the Lehigh Valley weather outlook for the rest of 2019
July 2019 officially ended as the hottest month on record, according to the latest climate report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s the warmest month since record-keeping began 140 years ago.
The heat is just one of the stories looking ahead in a month-by-month trend to close out 2019. That’s because the average global temperature last month was 1.71 degrees Fahrenheit more than the 20th-century average, according to NOAA.
Another heat wave — what would be our fourth of the season — is also on tap for the Lehigh Valley starting this weekend.
Will the heat last? Will we keep seeing severe weather and flooding rains? We talked to Empire Weather meteorologist Ed Vallee, who provides localized Lehigh Valley forecasts, about what to expect for the remainder of the year. slightly above average in the long term.
“The thing to keep in mind here that some people might not necessarily realize is that our normal temperatures drop off incredibly fast as we get into fall. Looking at Allentown for September, the average high and low is 80/58, but by end of month it’s 69/47. In 30 days, that’s a loss of 11 degrees, though everything is relative to normal of course,” Vallee said.
“Our look ahead here for now into the month of September is really not so cold. We may see some shots of cooler air but nothing extreme in the temperature department, and that will likely continue in October ... so a fairly warm fall is the way we’re leaning.”
That matches the latest outlook from the Weather Prediction Center, which noted increased chances for above-normal temperatures nationwide through November. results. I think the fall and winter are going to end up following this pattern and it puts a lot of weight on other variables in the atmosphere.”
El Nino, which occurs when warm water builds along the equator in the eastern Pacific, typically allows that moisturerich air to rise and develop into rainstorms. The atmospheric disruptions lead to the precipitation anomalies we’ve been seeing month to month. year for both states.
In the annual Severe Weather Report Summary, Pennsylvania had 831 reports of severe weather through Wednesday. That includes 33 tornadoes, 128 hail reports, and 670 instances of damaging winds.
April, May and July saw more warnings issued than in any previous year.
“I would say that we are probably going to keep the severe risk in the forecast through the next few weeks,” Vallee said. “As long as you have heat and humidity around, you have to keep that in mind. In fact, the severe risk in September is still there because we really get the clashing of air masses as cooler patterns begin to emerge.” because of how high our water tables are,” Vallee said.