Keith Mayer: Temperatures to build this week in Berks likely to the first 90-degree day of 2022

Keith Mayer, Reading Eagle, Pa.
·2 min read

May 17—Temperatures are expected to build this week to the likelihood of the first 90-degree day of 2022 for Berks County and the region on Friday or Saturday.

The date of the first 90-degree reading of the season on average for Berks is May 30. That is for the full 124-year period of record.

A passing shower or thunderstorm Thursday is the only potential disruption in the forecast to the sunshine. That's expected when the cool front that sparked the Monday thunderstorms returns to the region as a warm front.

Then there's another potential for rain in the clash of air masses on Sunday when a cool front crashes into the hot air in place over the mid-Atlantic and knocks down the temperatures again.

There were varying degrees of sogginess on Monday from thunderstorms.

Officially at Reading Regional Airport, the National Weather Service site in Berks, only 0.24 inch was recorded.

Isolated downpours created uneven rainfall totals from the storms Monday. Some of the squall line fell apart upon reaching Reading and the suburbs.

The totals included Schuylkill River at Berne, 2.31 inches; Hamburg, 1.79; Boyertown, 0.68; Brecknock Township, 0.56; New Morgan, 0.41; Blue Marsh Lake, 0.28; Lincoln Park, 0.26; Muhlenberg Park, 0.24; Cornwall Terrace and Shillington, 0.23; Mohrsville, 0.19; West Reading, 0.17; and Schuylkill River at Penn Street and Kutztown, 0.13.

At the airport, 3.24 inches of rain has fallen this month, nearly double normal for about halfway through May. The weather service has made adjustments up this month to a couple of date totals after shortcomings of the automated equipment at the airport were discovered.

For the year, 17.11 inches has been recorded, nearly 3 inches above normal.