Weather Rewind, June 5-11, 2011

It was hot again last week overall -- temperatures averaged seven degrees above average locally, buoyed by consecutive record highs in Philadelphia (97 on Wednesday 6/8, 99 on Thursday 6/9).   While neither of those two steambath days topped 100 locally, we did get a 102 out of Atlantic City on Thursday, which was their earliest 100 degree day on record.    These temperatures were eerily similar to those we had three weeks ago at this time -- mid and upper 90's in what was that year's first heat wave of the summer.

We picked up 0.79" of rain last week, most of it on Saturday in three rounds of rain and thunder that moved through the city during the day (one early, one mid afternoon, and a third late at night).   It's a needed round of rain considering the region is running with a rather sizable rainfall deficit the past 45 days.

Nationally, we were not the warmest to average locally.  That honor belongs to the Midwest, where the heat was just as fierce but lasted an extra couple of days compared to here on the East Coast.  Average temperatures in the Midwest and Plains (Missouri and Kansas) were ten plus degrees above average during the last seven days (Saturday through last Friday), with St. Louis picking up four record highs in a eight day stretch along with 90 degree highs for eight days straight.