Drought’s last stand?
Strong storms, heavy rain due.
Shopping Cart icon Buy Photo At 11 a.m. Thursday, Pennsylvania’s drought task force is scheduled to meet to talk about the region’s ongoing drought watch, which seems to have more staying power than a spring cold.
The overall precipitation landscape has improved dramatically in the last three months, but rainfall for the last 30 days remains substantially below normal in all eight counties.
That should change by day’s end on Friday as a potent storm migrates toward the Mid-Atlantic coast, and the National Weather Service is calling for 1 to 2 inches of rain.
The Storm Prediction Center, in Norman, Okla., lists a “slight risk” of severe weather — winds approaching 60 mph — for most of Delaware and areas near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border.
A flow from the south will import moist air ahead of the mass of showers, the storm center says.
This time of year, the foliage develops a mighty thirst, and stream levels remain quite unimpressive.
Groundwater supplies have been stubbornly low, and that is one reason that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has continued the drought watch in Philadelphia and its neighboring counties.
That watch could end by Thursday afternoon.