Dense Fog, Possible Evening Downpours To Cause Traffic Troubles
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)-- Give yourself a little extra time as you head out the door this morning. It's a slow start on the roads with areas of dense fog reducing visibility to under 1/4 of a mile.
Traffic is higher than usual and several accidents have already been reported due to the changing weather conditions. The culprit for the thick fog is a large storm system with an abundance of warmth and Gulf moisture heading in our direction.
A fresh round of rain will redevelop during the late morning hours and temperatures will soar into the upper 60s today, about 15 degrees above average.
Yesterday, Philadelphia received 1.02" of beneficial rainfall and that is the highest daily amount of rain in the city since September 19. We are in need of the rain and many cities across the Northeast United States remain in a low to moderate drought. Including yesterday, only 3 days this month have produced measurable rainfall in Philadelphia and we are still about 6" below average for the year.
Here are some other rainfall amounts as of this morning:
Pottstown, PA 1.46"
Quakertown, PA 1.43"
Newark, DE .97"
Berwyn, PA .94"
Haddonfield, NJ .89"
Glasgow, DE .81"
Sewell, NJ .64"
Millville, NJ .40"
As mentioned earlier, you're going to want to grab the umbrella again today. There will also be some travel troubles and inconveniences for the evening commute as downpours could lead to poor drainage flooding and ponding on roadways.
Tomorrow we dry out and December will arrive seasonably cool and breezy but another storm system looms on the horizon and may bring a new batch of rain to the area as early as Sunday night. The Eyewitness Weather Team will keep you updated on that during the next few days.
Meanwhile, today marks the end of the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season. This season had 15 named storms, 7 Hurricanes and 3 major Hurricanes (Cat 3 or higher). This was the most active and costliest Atlantic hurricane season since 2012 and the deadliest since 2005.
On an interesting note, the season began super early in mid-January, with the formation of Hurricane Alex. Alex was the first Atlantic January hurricane since Hurricane Alice in 1955. The season, however will likely be remembered for its strongest storm which was Hurricane Matthew. Matthew was the first Category 5 hurricane to form in the Atlantic basin since Felix in 2007 and over 1600 deaths were attributed to this one storm mostly across the poor country of Haiti. Matthew also brought flooding rains and extreme storm surge to the islands of the Bahamas before it battered the United States from coastal Florida to North Carolina.
