With temperatures climbing to above average levels later this week it won’t stick around for long, but the sight of ice on the fountain in Hellertown’s Detwiller Plaza this week was a frosty reminder that winter is just getting under way.
In the wake of a powerful storm that moved through eastern Pennsylvania Thursday and Friday, fierce winds gusting in excess of 50 mph have brought down trees and wires, cutting power to hundreds of area households on the eve of Christmas eve.
Rapidly deteriorating weather conditions that included a one-hour temperature drop of nearly 10 degrees and accumulating snow in places prompted some area schools and businesses to close early Friday.
The weather that is now forecast for the final days before Christmas will make things like traveling easier, but for those hoping for a white Christmas, it certainly won’t be ideal.
The transition from warmer-than-average fall weather to wintry conditions eastern Pennsylvania has been experiencing could culminate Friday with a chance of snow squalls, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
If it seems early in the season for snowflakes to be in the forecast, that’s because it is. Snow in mid-November is relatively rare in the Lehigh Valley area, but that’s what the National Weather Service says some areas may see Tuesday night.
A hot, dry Labor Day weekend was expected to come to a wet end Monday, with heavy rain in the forecast and a flood watch in effect for Lehigh, Northampton and upper Bucks counties.
If it seems like it’s been a dry summer, that’s because it has been. In fact it’s so dry that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued a drought watch for Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks and 33 other counties where drought is a concern.
When it comes to dealing with the weather, we’re all in it together, so in the midst of a summer heat wave it makes sense to turn to friends and neighbors for help cooling off.
Although it has been an unusually dry summer so far, temperatures in the Lehigh Valley area–for the most part–have also been remarkably comfortable. That’s about to change.
