Pennsylvania Weather Review: July 2026
Pennsylvania Weather Review: July 2026
The active weather from June continued into July. The month featured heat, humidity, severe storms, more tornadoes, wildfire smoke, and among all that- at times it felt like fall. I recap all the ups, downs, twists, and turns below!
July Highlights
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The month began hot & humid with dewpoints in the 70s. Some locations broke record high temperatures and record warmest low temperatures as temperatures did not drop overnight. On the 2nd the heat caused a mass casualty event near Reading as folks waiting to see the Union Pacific Big Boy became overheated. July 3rd had the highest daily average temperature ever recorded in Harrisburg. Storms on the 3rd knocked out power to over 100,000 customers. The northern lights were also visible in the cloudless spots into the early hours of the 4th.
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Storms & heat continued on the 4th of July. Power outages grew with nearly 270,000 customers without power late on the 4th (~40,000 remained from the 3rd). The 5th saw more storms with heavy rain, mainly in western Pennsylvania. The flooding was localized but intense with water rescues and flooded homes. Some of the towns impacted include Slippery Rock and Tyrone where over 3 inches of rain fell in a short period of time. One tornado touched down on the 5th near Enola. Slow moving downpours on the 6th brought more flash flooding to some of the same areas impacted the day prior.
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| 72 hour precipitation ending at 7:00am July 7, 2026. Source. |
Pop up thunderstorms and showers continued on the 7th through 9th but was not as widespread or as heavy. Flooding returned with Flash Flood Warnings on both the 10th and 11th. The 10th marked the 8th straight day of precipitation at the Altoona Airport. A series of 4 microbursts brought widespread damage to Philadelphia on the 11th.
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| Daily PM2.5 AQI Values for July 16th and 17th. Source |
A break in the stormy weather arrived on the 12th. The heat also relaxed with a refreshing cool morning on the 13th. The weather could not have been more perfect for the All Star Festivities in Philadelphia on the 13th and 14th. This nice weather brought in by a northwest flow had a downside as wildfire smoke began filtering over the state on the 15th. On the 16th the smoke had infiltrated all of Pennsylvania severely impacting the air quality. Hourly AQI values soared over 200 to 300+ with some stations reporting hourly AQI values of 500!
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| Record Daily AQI (PM2.5) values. Values from July 2026 are in bold. Source. |
A warm front on the 18th brought a change in the wind direction that pushed out the smoke. This front also brought with it the return of severe storms and heavy rain, mainly impacting western Pennsylvania once again. 9 tornadoes were confirmed from this event. Some locations recorded over 2 inches of rain fell in just an hours time.
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| Severe Weather Summary from July 18, 2026. |
Another round of rain and storms brought another 5 (weak) tornadoes on the 21st. Behind this the weather returned to refreshing with low temperatures dropping into the 40s & 50s for many on the mornings of the 23rd and 24th. Dewpoints were in the 40s on the 23rd. Bradford dropped to 38° with Erie recording the coolest July temperature since 2001!
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| 24 hour low temperatures ending at 8:45am July 23, 2026. Source. |
While the month ended mainly quiet and cool, there was one more disturbance on the 28th. Starting just before midnight, slow moving downpours sat over McKean County causing flash flooding. Bradford recorded 3.89" on the 28th, the second wettest day on record. 1.27" fell between 8am and 9am, the 5th wettest 1 hour total on record there. More storms developed in the afternoon. More severe flash flooding impacted northern Cambria County. The storms were more concentrated and severe in southeastern Pennsylvania with more wind damage and flash flooding.
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| 24 hour precipitation totals ending at 9:00pm pm July 28, 2026. Source. |
July Statistics
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| Temperature and Precipitation summary for July 2026. |
July 2026 featured temperature departures ranging from just below average to more than 1.5° above average. Precipitation was widely variable given the popup nature of the storms. The largest departures were on the positive side but Allentown and Williamsport recorded deficits of more than an inch. It was the second wettest July on record in Bradford thanks to the 2nd wettest day on record (3.89" on July 28th). This was nearly the entire July average falling on one day and the total for the month to date total was already above average.
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| Accumulated precipitation from Bradford for July 2026 with a table of the wettest days on record (inset). Source. |
The National Weather Service was very busy during July 2026. Here is a breakdown of some of the numbers:
-257 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for the month is the 3rd most for any month.
- 64 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings on July 4th was the 7th most for any day!
- 30 Tornado Warnings is the 5th most for any month.
- 114 Flash Flood Warnings is the 2nd most for any month in Pennsylvania. July 2025 was the previous record for most Flash Flood Warnings for the month of July with 97.
- 26 Flash Flood Warnings on July 5th is the 7th most for a single day.
- A Flash Flood Warning was issued for a part or all of Philadelphia County on 7 days in July 2026.
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2026 Tornado Update
At the start of June there had been no tornadoes in Pennsylvania this year. At the start of July the total was 22 (2nd most for the month of June). In July an additional 15 tornadoes touched down in the state. This the 2nd most ever for the month of July! The total of 37 for June & July is the record most for the months combined. The second most was 29 in 1998. 37 for the year so far if the 3rd most behind 1998 (59) and 2021 (44).
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| Map of all the tornadoes so far in 2026. |
Eye on Drought
The downpours brought some drought relief to the state over the past 4 weeks. 6.57% of the state remains in Severe Drought, down from 11.29% in mid-June. Hopefully more relief will come in the near future, but without the flash flooding, please!
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Webcam Image of the Month
Nature's Fireworks. I had trouble picking a webcam image of the month but I feel this one is quite unique. A nighttime thunderstorm anvil is lit up by a cloud to ground lightning strike as seen from Shanksville on July 4th.
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| Nighttime view of a thunderstorm from the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville. Source. |
Wrapping Up & Looking Ahead
Summer is rolling along quickly. Although I don't have any new weather history blogs in the near future, I have been doing some history research. I can't wait to sort through all of the articles I have saved.
As always, remember to look up!
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