Could Tropical Storm Debby bring rain to central PA? Here’s what one expert predicts
Heavy rain and wind slammed parts of Florida and Georgia Monday thanks to Tropical Storm Debby, which made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane along the Florida coastline.
Now a tropical storm, Debby is expected to continue drenching much of the Southeast as it stalls inland early this week and eventually moves up the East Coast. Debby’s remnants may reach Pennsylvania by the weekend, according to the National Hurricane Center, but much of the forecast could change in the coming days.
Here’s what you need to know about this week’s forecast for central Pennsylvania, including any potential impacts from Debby.
Could tropical storm Debby bring rain to Pennsylvania?
Rain from Debby is well within the realm of possibilities for central Pennsylvania, experts say. However, the severity of the rainfall and its exact timing will largely rely in the path Debby takes as it works its way up the coast.
“It’s certainly possible we get some rain from Debby sometime Thursday leading into Friday or this weekend,” said Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather in State College. “There’s a better chance east of us [in Pennsylvania], but it’s certainly possible some decent rains get back into Centre County. It’s something we’ll need to keep an eye on.”
Regardless of the rain, Kines said wind will likely not play a major role if any remnants of Debby wind up in Pennsylvania.
“Rain will be more of a factor than wind would be,” he said. “Even though we might not get into the heavy rain here, and that’s still a big question mark, we might get enough to cause some flooding issues, especially farther east. You get into the southeastern part of the state down around Philadelphia, and they might get a lot of rain there.”
Temperatures in Pennsylvania this week are expected to cool significantly, Kines said. Temperatures Wednesday, Thursday and heading into the weekend will top out around 76 degrees Fahrenheit, according to AccuWeather. The trend marks a significant shift from just last week when temperatures in State College reached the upper 80s and early 90s.
“There might be a day this week when we don’t even hit 70,” Kines said. “Eventually, over the weekend, we’ll probably see temperatures drop down into the 50s at night, which we haven’t seen in a long time. It should make for some great sleeping weather.”
Despite the cooler temperatures, humidity is expected to stick around and keep things muggy in Centre County until some drier air filters in over the weekend.
Kines said cooler temperatures likely won’t have much of an impact on the rain Debby might bring once it reaches the Mid-Atlantic states.
“Whether it was going to be 85 or 65 [degrees], I don’t think it matters a whole lot with what Debby delivers to us,” Kines said.
How badly does central Pennsylvania need rain?
Although much of Pennsylvania is observing an abnormally dry summer, the State College area is finally catching up to normal precipitation levels.
Roughly 5.76 inches of precipitation has fallen in State College since summer began June 20, according to the National Weather Service. That mark falls just short of an average summer, which would’ve seen 5.93 inches of precipitation fall in that roughly six-week span.
State College recently received a major boost thanks to summer storms that dumped about 2.5 inches of rain between July 30 and Aug. 4, according to agency data. Still, the area is far from its observed records for this period, which observed a record high of about 14.8 inches of rain in 2018 and a record low of just 1.72 inches in 1972.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than half of Pennsylvania is seeing abnormally dry conditions. Some of the commonwealth’s southwestern areas, including parts of Somerset and Bedford counties, are categorized as experiencing “extreme drought” through the end of July.
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