WEATHER: A 'Triple Crown' of 90° Days For Philadelphia?
By Geoff Bansen
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- "It's beginning to look a lot like...summer, everywhere you go."
One step outside over the next few days, and you'll be singing the same tune. A warm, summer-like weather pattern is taking hold of the Delaware Valley. Wednesday will be a great day, with highs in the mid to upper 80s (cooler down the shore, as usual) and abundant sunshine. Glasses? Sunscreen? Light clothing? Water? Make sure those are ALL checks today and through the first part of the weekend.
Thursday will be the first of three potential consecutive 90 degree days, which would give us the first heat wave of 2015. Part of a cold front will drag through the region tomorrow afternoon, but with the jet stream and associated low well to the north, precipitation is not likely to make it this far south. With modest instability and daytime heating, a small cell could briefly pop up. Don't expect a cool down; those steamy temps will return, meaning a carbon copy on Friday.
A stronger cold front will impact Philadelphia on Saturday, and that will indeed drop the temperatures for the second half of the weekend. Similar to the horse racing Triple Crown, the third 'leg' needed to complete the heat wave will be the most difficult in this case. If we can squeak out a 90 degree reading before the clouds - and thunderstorms - roll in during the afternoon, it would give us the that elusive heat wave.