Rains, beyond measure
Recent rains were quite generous, despite official tally.
Comedian George Carlin, echoed by legions of others, once remarked famously that no one lived at the airport.
So why are so many official measuring stations located at major airports?
A whole lot of folks fly in and out of aiirports, and they are rather important to our economy, so the tradition has some logical basis.
Still, the tiny cylinder that catches the official precipition is an infinitesimal part of any given region, and sometimes the readings from Philadelphia International Airport bear infinitesimal relations to what's going on elsewhere.
Officiallly, a mere 0.26 inches was measured at the airport from the Friday showers.
However, looking at the county-wide tables published daily by the Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center, the weather service forecast of a widespread 1 to 3 inches was more or less on the mark.
The river center uses measurements from a variety of stations to come up with county-wide average totals.
In Philadelphia, the county-wide total actually was 1.2 inches. Montgomery picked up an inch,k and Cape May, 2.3.
Obviously, a dry slot ruled near the airport. The Delaware County total was only 0.1 inches.
In all cases, the totals were better than nothing.