Dry weather continues in Philadelphia region as temperatures warm up. See the full forecast.
The weather story on Friday will be continued dry weather and rebounding temperatures.
It will start out chilly again across the Philadelphia region, but we do get back to seasonable temps – expect rapid warming through the morning hours bringing us to a high of around 70 degrees in Philadelphia and the high 60s in spots outside the city.
This precedes another nice weekend warmup with dry weather and highs climbing back to the mid to upper 70s.
New Jersey issues drought watch
A drought watch has been issued for the entire state of New Jersey due to the lack of rainfall and worsening drought conditions. At this point, a moderate drought extends across all of South Jersey with areas of severe drought over much of Atlantic, Burlington, and Ocean counties. That severe drought has also begun to spread into Camden, Gloucester, and Cumberland counties.
The lack of rainfall since early September coupled with warmer-than-average temperatures in the past two months has created the worst drought conditions in the Garden State since August 2022 when a drought watch went into effect through December 2022.
It has been 22 years since a drought warning was issued for New Jersey and that lasted nearly a year between March 2002 and January 2003.
All residents and businesses are urged to conserve water until conditions improve. If the drought worsens, a drought warning and even a drought emergency may be needed.
Extended forecast models hint that the current stretch of dry weather may continue into late October possibly reaching a record length of days without rain.
The dry conditions coupled with extremely low humidity have also prompted an elevated fire danger this weekend. Residents are asked to avoid the use of outdoor flames.
There are pluses and minuses to the warm and dry conditions – you might be able to rake some leaves in shorts, and this sunshine is great for a fall festival or getting in some leaf-peeping (get outdoors in the Lehigh Valley if you want to see peak fall color).
If the current forecast holds, this will likely be a top 10-dry stretch. The longest we've gone without rain in Philadelphia since records started was 29 days way back in 1874. We are currently at 18 days, and with no rain in the forecast through most of next week, there's a chance we could get close. If we were to make it to Oct. 28 without any rain, that would be a new record for the area. As of now, it's looking like that timeframe may be our next chance at any rainfall, so it could be close! We'll keep you posted.
As always, stay with the NEXT Weather team to keep you alert of any changes.
Here's your 7-day forecast:
Friday: Sunny. High 70, Low 43.
Saturday: Beautiful. High 72, Low 43.
Sunday: Mostly sunny. High 76, Low 43
Monday: Warmer. High 79, Low 47.
Tuesday: Warm again. High 80, Low 50.
Wednesday: Sunny, warm. High 77, Low 52.
Thursday: Warming up. High 71, Low 55