A beautiful, seasonable October stretch is underway in the Philadelphia area this week with seasonably mild temperatures again on Wednesday, followed by a reinforcing shot of cool air Wednesday night.
Thursday and Friday will likely stay in the 60s with morning lows in the 40s! As of now, Friday morning looks to be the chilliest of the week, and then we rebound into the 70s by the weekend.
Speaking of lows in the 40s, the average first occurrence of lows in the 40s in Philly is Sept. 30. We are behind schedule but nowhere near the record latest first occurrence, which is Oct. 20.
The main weather story across the nation is Hurricane Milton . Milton remains a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane with winds sustained at 160 mph, gusting to 200!!! Milton’s wind speeds reached 180 mph at one point, on par with storms like Irma, Rita and Mitch.
Milton did temporarily weaken a bit to a Category 4, but it is expected to keep fluctuating in strength over the next 24 hours or so. Milton may weaken once it approaches the west coast of Florida later on Wednesday evening. The current track has Milton making landfall late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning as a Category 4 or possibly strong Category 3 hurricane right over the city of Tampa, which would make it the strongest hurricane to directly make landfall in that area in over a century.