Berks County residents are no strangers to recent deluges, with multiple episodes in 2018 and 2019, including two fatalities, plus an epic thunderstorm downpour on Aug. 2, 2020, ahead of the remnants of Hurricane Isaias.
Now there’s another.
The tropical downpours on Sunday amounted to 5.35 inches at Reading Regional Airport, the National Weather Service site in Berks, crushing the date record of 3.74 from 1952. It also slipped past 5.32 inches from July 12, 2004, to become the wettest day in any July in the 154-year precipitation database.
Some of the nonofficial sites in Berks were higher than 5.35. These included Five Points, 9.16 inches; Pricetown, 8.19; Blandon, 7.97; Fleetwood, 7.94; Sinking Spring, 7.62; State Hill, 6.71; Frush Valley, 6.61; Muhlenberg Park, 6.45; and Cornwall Terrace, 5.35.
Numerous other measurements were available from the weather service, the CoCoRaHS and MesoWest collaboratives and more organizations, and ranged from slightly less than the airport to just under 2 inches. Rainfall varied widely due to the hit-and-miss nature of the downpours.
The day also took its spot among the wettest days of the record period at official sites at No. 7.
These are the all-time dates that remain ahead of Sunday:
• 6.75 inches: Oct. 8, 2005, tropical moisture
• 6.73 inches: Oct. 3, 1869, Saxby Gale
• 6.49 inches: June 23, 1972, Remnants of Agnes
• 6.25 inches: Sept. 9, 1987, Tropical Depression 8
• 6.08 inches: Nov. 25, 1950, The Great Appalachian Storm
• 5.89 inches: Aug. 2, 2020, thunderstorms
The 5.35 inches also had two other accomplishments: It pushed this month nearly onto the list of 10 wettest Julys on record at No. 11 with 8.01 inches, and erased all of the remaining precipitation deficit for 2023, even creating a surplus.
Through Sunday at the airport, the annual precipitation total at the airport was up to 23.24 inches, and normal, which is already elevated, is 22.05.
All those downpours of the final years of last decade have helped push normal for precipitation up higher than ever before in Berks.
The hydrologist with the Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center, a division of the weather service, has yet to post the revised totals for counties in the wake of the Sunday deluge.
Storms are back in the forecast again for Friday, according to AccuWeather, and there’s lot of month to go to add to the total.
The five wettest Julys in the Berks database:
• 13.85 inches: 2004
• 12.41 inches: 1916
• 12.15 inches: 1969
• 11.66 inches: 1925
• 9.30 inches: 1889
Source: Berkshire mont
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