It’s been 25 days without rain in Philadelphia

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It’s been at least 25 days since Philadelphia has seen any measurable rain, the longest streak since 2001, according to the National Weather Service.

The city’s dry spell comes as the Delaware Valley is dealing with a moderate to severe drought due to a near-record lack of rainfall over the past month.

The National Integrated Drought Information System says Philadelphia County not only has seen just 25–50% of the normal precipitation for this time of year, but temperatures have been 3–6 degrees above normal.

Meteorologist Alex Staarmann said the NWS took note of a potential drought around early August.

“It’s been pretty dry just in general across our region,” Staarmann said. “Much of our area received much below normal rainfall for the entire month of September. There was some heavy rain, at least localized areas of heavy rain in early August, particularly with the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby.”

“By the end of September, it did start looking like at least the first two or three weeks of October would be pretty dry, and that certainly has seemed to pan out so far,” Staarmann said.

Staarmann said meaningful rainfall is not expected for the rest of October, potentially stretching into the first week of November.

In the southwest and coastal south portions of New Jersey, the 90-day precipitation statuses have been rated from moderately to severely dry for the area.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has declared a state-wide drought watch and is urging people to conserve water. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service has banned open burnings of campfires or charcoal.

Delaware’s New Castle County is also dealing with moderate to severe drought and has seen roughly 25–50% of expected precipitation levels.

The hottest year on record was 2023, according to temperature data going back to 1850, according to NPR. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s winter outlook from the Climate Prediction Center says the Delaware Valley will likely see above-average temperatures from December to next February.