Speaker 0: 0:00

Hi, this is meteorologist Steve Pelletierian. I'm the weatherman. Thanks for checking into theweathermanpodcom On your Wednesday. It's the 13th day of the month of August 2025. Lots to talk about. Today we're going to cover the historical 70-year anniversary of the Delaware River floods. Also taking a look at Tropical Storm Erin that's now moving westward, just probably about. It looks like about 400, 500 miles to the west of the African coast and it looks like it's going to continue moving westward and then start to head north and eastern We'll talk about in just a minute Probably going to become a hurricane then a major hurricane too by the end of this work week.

Speaker 0: 0:40

First weather across the Northeast card for today we're just going to have sunny hot weather continues. First weather across the Northeast card for today we're just going to have sunny hot weather continues. There's about a 50% chance of late-day thunderstorms for Philly, new York and the Boston area, especially later day and evening. Also a chance of some showers and thunderstorms during the daytime on Thursday. There's a weather front that's moving through the high pressure. Behind it, not a particularly cool high pressure cell, but it will represent some drier weather moving in for Friday into this weekend, then back to some heat and humidity by later Sunday and Monday of next week. So for the Northeast card, just expect daytime highs 90 to 95, nighttime lows 70 to 75. Scattered showers and thunderstorms both on Wednesday and Thursday. Drier, slightly cooler weather for Friday and Saturday, then back to the heat on Sunday.

Speaker 0: 1:24

Of course there's a report from our pal Jeff Morrison. Jeff has always been interested in weather since he's been a small kid and has been collecting New Jersey weather data for 50 years or more and has been providing local observations to us here at ION Weather since 1979. A good friend too. Jeff has been a longtime member of the North Jersey Weather Observers, along with a local COCORAS Community Collaborative Rain, hail and Snow Network observer that are headquartered out in Colorado, and he does it for Somerset County, new Jersey, providing valuable precipitation data on his nationwide network. Jeff has a full weather station at his home and enjoys writing articles on a variety of weather topics for the general audience, and that's what we're talking about. It's a little bit more appropriate for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and that's the 70th anniversary of the major flooding in the Delaware River Yesterday we talked about first.

Speaker 0: 2:15

It was Hurricane Connie in 1955 and then Hurricane Diane, and the combination of those two made a tremendous amount of rainfall in the Delaware Basin. By August 20th of 1955, the Delaware Basin was well above the 22-foot flood stage, reaching a crest of 44.4 feet in Easton, the highest ever recorded. Now Easton found itself surrounded by water, completely surrounded. The town of Easton, pennsylvania, right on to Delaware, low-lying neighborhoods were inundated with the muddy, fast-moving currents and if you've ever seen a Delaware, when it's moving it comes down very, very quickly. A similar situation existed across the river in Phillipsburg, new Jersey, where the South Main Street area close to the riverbank was totally submerged. Homes and businesses in both places were damaged or destroyed. Some roads were washed away and debris filled the flooded streets At the height of the flooding. Parts of both communities were only accessible by boat, both in Easton and in Phillipsburg they're right across from each other and separated by the Delaware. Further north upstream, the Portland-Columbia Pedestrian Bridge, built in 1831 and reportedly the oldest wooden covered bridge in the US at the time, was totally destroyed and US at the time was totally destroyed and the bridge debris traveled down the river before getting lodged at the Easton Phillipsburg Free Bridge, making matters worse, ultimately collapsing a 110-foot center section of that bridge into the river Again. That was in August 1955 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey eastern Pennsylvania, western New Jersey. In all four of the 12 bridges that span the Delaware River, from the Delaware water gap to Trenton, totally collapsed. Elsewhere the flooding sparked dramatic rescues of thousands of residents and summer visitors to the area in the nearby Poconos as they tried to get out of the way of the water. There was a reported Operation Kid Lift where military helicopters airlifted hundreds of these kids from summer camps and from the islands on the river. In the Poconos One newspaper reported inundated that south of Frenchtown 14 helicopters evacuated 600 boy and girl scouts and campfire girls from those three islands. Can you imagine that 14 helicopters, campfire girls from those three islands? Can you imagine that 14 helicopters, 600 boys and girls because of this tremendous flood in eastern Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg along the Delaware Actually lots of places along the Delaware totally flooded this month in 1955. We'll have more information on this in tomorrow's report.

Speaker 0: 4:40

Getting back to Tropical Storm Erin, you know maximum winds close to 50 miles per hour. It's going to become a hurricane, probably by Wednesday afternoon. It'll probably become a major hurricane that's over Category 3 sometime by, probably later on Thursday or Thursday night, and then it will continue to travel eastward. The European model forecast model actually brings this storm just north of the Bahamas, south of Bermuda, in that little area around the Bermuda Triangle, and then sort of turns it towards the north. Hopefully that will happen, but the model by, let's say, the 22nd of August, next Friday, a week from this Friday, they're expecting a storm on the European model to be located, let's say, about 500 to 600 miles due east of Virginia Beach, virginia, and it's going to be safely offshore. It so says the European model. At this time it's too early to tell, but let's make sure that we note that with the European model. Tomorrow we're going to look at the GF fast. We're also going to take a look at what the National Hurricane Service is using and where they're projecting this storm to be over the next five to ten days.

Speaker 0: 5:53

Weather-wise, if you are traveling, just want to get close to that, you know we have those showers and thunderstorms up along the whole eastern seaboard. Uh, that's because of the approaching weather front that we'll be going through, probably sometime during the overnight wednesday into thursday. Doesn't look like a lot of heavy rains associated with it, but every time you have a thunderstorm you can always have some tremendous downpours, but weather-wise for aviation usually can slow things down quite a bit, especially during the middle to later afternoon hours. So if you're traveling during the summertime, try to avoid the middle to later afternoon hours. Fly early morning, first flight out or late at night. Even if delayed at night, flights many times will be delayed or if not canceled because of what happens during the afternoon. So the best thing to do is always to fly in the early morning. I know it's tough getting up, but it's really well worth it when you get to where you want to be.

Speaker 0: 6:41

Scattered showers and thunderstorms are going to cause some delays in New York, philadelphia, dc, baltimore and, to a lighter extent, up in the Boston area. We are looking at scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon hours in Charlotte and in Atlanta. Although Atlanta in the morning hours shouldn't be too bad, it's later afternoon that we're going to have those thunderstorms. Thunderstorms reappearing across the Florida Peninsula, as they will around Houston, but not so bad there. Worst of the rain is going to be from Louisiana. They've been getting a lot of rain the last several days right along the Gulf Coast, louisiana, alabama, mississippi and the western panhandle of Florida, and also in Dallas. Fort Worth Looks like a clearing trend for Chicago, minneapolis, st Paul, some smoky weather moving down out of central Canada because of the fires there. Generally dry conditions across the West Coast, la, san Diego, san Francisco, even up to Portland and Seattle. The weather will not be a problem flying in and out of those places.

Speaker 0: 7:30

Any delays you have could be because of well, the FAA, or equipment delays or computer delays. So keep that in mind. It's always a possibility. But that's the weather picture. I'm meteorologist, steve Pelletier, and I am the weatherman. Hope you have a great day today. Talk to you first thing on Thursday. See you then.