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What's with the downpours? Half a foot in some areas since Sunday

Impressive rains have been wrung out from the juiced atmosphere the last few days. The 2.46 inches that fell on Monday at the airport was a record for the date. More downpours possible Thursday.

Janae Metzler (left) and Erika Stover sit on the ground along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway  after rainfall earlier this month.
Janae Metzler (left) and Erika Stover sit on the ground along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway after rainfall earlier this month.Read moreMARGO REED / Staff Photographer

This week has constituted a case study in the caprice of summer rains.

Over 6 inches of rain fell Sunday and Monday upon Malaga, Gloucester County,  according to the National Weather Service, and some other areas have reported similar amounts, said Mitchell Gaines, a meteorologist in the Mount Holly office.

Yet, 20 miles away from those localized soakings, an inch or less had fallen.

It makes sense that if the rain is focused on one area — say, 10 square miles or less — other places are going to be rain-deprived. The atmosphere has a finite amount of juice.

In Philadelphia, the rains that delayed the Phillies game for close to two hours Monday night weighed in at 2.46 inches, a record for a July 24. That also was the most in a 24-hour period since Sept. 10, 2015. Wilmington also set a record for the date, with 2.16 inches, yet more than 7 inches was reported from a station about seven miles to the northwest.

Any number of studies have concluded that background warming has led to an increase in water vapor in the atmosphere.

The United Nations' World Meteorological Organization reported that — globally — the first decade of the 21st century was one of the wettest since global record-keeping began around 1900.

But climatologists and meteorologists consistently have cautioned against reading too much into any one extreme event.

The thunder and lightning is scheduled for a day off Wednesday, but the weather service says more downpours are possible late Thursday and Friday.

The Storm Prediction Center, the national mayhem center in Oklahoma, has the region placed in the "slight risk" zone for severe storms, for the potential of wind gusts to 60 mph and/or hail.

It is impossible to know with any certainty, however, which areas might get creamed.

In the meantime, the heat and those threatened three-digit heat indexes have been routed.

Any mention of the 90s is absent from the forecasts well into next week.