Flood watch Wednesday
Up to 2.5 inches expected -- of rain that is; meanwhile, 2011 joins 5-footer club.
Flood watch Wednesday
The threat of any significant accumulating snow in the immediate Philadelphia area is a remote one, but heavy rain is all but a certainty.
The National Weather Service has posted a flood watch for Wednesday afternoon into Wednesday night for Philadelphia and all the neighboring counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
River flooding isn't expected, but with up to 2.5 inches of rain anticipated, road-ponding and small-stream flooding are possible.
In the Poconos, a winter storm watch was issued for 3 to 8 inches of snow, and a coating of slush isn't out of the question for Philly by Thursday morning.
In the meantime, we should note that yesterday the official precipitation total for the calendar year reached exactly 60.00 inches, or precisely 5 feet.
That never had happened in the confines of a calendar year, however, it has occurred in other 365-day periods.
In the period ending Oct. 1, 1933, 61.41 inches was measured; May 31, 1912, 60.54; May 10, 1939, 60.25, and May 21, 1873, 60.19.
The total for the 365 days that ended on Nov. 30, 2011, was 63.2 inches. That nudged out the former champ, the period ending on March 31, 2010, which stands at 62.61.
Tony Wood has been writing about the atmosphere for The Inquirer for 26 years. E-mail Tony here. And read all his columns here.
