Early season warm spell over with record set, another tied in Berks

The three-day workweek warmup is over in Berks County and the region, and the post-mortem shows one record set and another tied.

The official highs for Wednesday through Friday on the automated equipment at Reading Regional Airport, the official National Weather Service site in Berks, were 84, 87 and 88 degrees, respectively. The lows were 61, 55 and 52.

Thursday’s high of 87 degrees tied with 1938 for the top April 13 temperature in the 125-year Berks temperature database.

The low Wednesday of 61 degrees bettered 58 from 1944 for the mildest low on an April 12. It was one of the easier date marks to eclipse still on the books for warmest lows in April.

Both of the marks from yesteryear were from the mild midcentury period that resembles current weather in the region, though current conditions are slightly warmer. In that era, the temperatures were recorded by U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologists in center city.

The 88-degree Friday was close to the record of 90 from 1941, which is the earliest 90-degree day in a year.

The weather service office in Mount Holly, N.J., declared the 84 on Wednesday as a date record, bettering 78 degrees from 1977.

An old problem that fouls Berks weather records from the intermediate period between the weather bureau era and the airport era rises again with the recent warmup.

The measuring day in the weather bureau and weather service periods is the calendar day. But, when official measurements were taken at Met-Ed and UGI from the 1970s to the late ’90s the measurement day was 8 a.m. to 7:59 the next morning.

The highs and lows for the 24 hours were recorded and entered for the day that ended at 7:59. The low often wasn’t affected but the highs mostly occurred the previous afternoon.

That was the case with the 78 in 1977. It actually occurred on April 11. The weather service has never adjusted its data.

The high temperature record for April 11 is 85 degrees from 2011 and 2017, recorded at the airport on the calendar day.

Most of the high temperature date records are from this century or the midcentury period, but there are still some from the Met-Ed and UGI eras and the skewed measuring day.

Relatively seasonal conditions are expected in Berks for the week ahead but chilly at times, especially Tuesday, with maybe 80 degrees again by Friday.

Source: Berkshire mont