You’ll get it, lots of it, 1 to 3 inches, starting Friday.
You want more fall-like temperatures?
Hold on until Saturday and enjoy a spate of days in the 60s.
In the meantime, enjoy today, the last of the 80-ish degree weather, perhaps for good, in 2005.
Yes, big changes are afoot following the warmest four-month period on record.
September concluded with a monthly average nearly 6 degrees above normal, the greatest departure from normal of any September on record, reports Eric Horst, Millersville University’s senior meteorologist.
September also strung together 23 straight days of the mercury reaching at least 80 degrees. That’s never happened since local weather records began.
Temperatures in June, July and August also were well above normal.
In fact, it was the hottest year on record in central Pennsylvania, according to Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Tuesday, which reached 77 degrees in Lancaster, was declared a rare autumn air-quality action day.
The state Department of Environmental Protection warned that unhealthy pollution levels could affect sensitive residents.
On top of the autumn heat, only 1 inch of rain fell in Lancaster County during September, increasing Lancaster County’s rainfall deficit to 8 inches below normal for 2005.
But that pattern will change, beginning this weekend.
Remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy will move northward, bringing the county its most significant rain since mid-July, Horst says.
Showers may begin Friday morning with rain falling in earnest around mid-day and continuing in waves through mid-Saturday.
“It will not be good for Friday night football games and some college games on Saturday,” he says.
Depending on the storm’s track, rain should total at least 1 inch and could reach 3 inches, with even more possible.
“Someone in the Mid-Atlantic will get 5 inches,” Horst predicts.
Unless rain reaches more than 3 inches, Horst does not foresee localized flooding here.
Temperatures also will be changing as a cold front moves into the area.
Tropical air from Tammy will keep muggy air in place through Friday, Horst says. Then, by Saturday afternoon, it will be breezy and fall-like.
Lows Saturday night will be in the upper 40s. Sunday will be seasonable with highs in the 60s to near 70.
Another round of significant rain could arrive in the second half of next week.
The lack of rain has not been kind to farmers, whose promising start to the growing season in the spring fizzled as the skies dried up.
The fall foliage show also will suffer across the state, according to Marc Abrams, a Penn State professor of forest ecology and physiology.
“Due to the extremely hot, dry weather this summer, this fall’s display will not be one of our best. In fact, some people are probably already starting to see that some leaves are going from green to dull brown.”
Abrams said that the sustained dry conditions this summer would normally goose trees into turning color a week or two early.
But the continued warmth will likely delay the display, he continued.
“Those opposing forces are likely to mitigate each other to some extent, so we should see our foliage colors peak in the second week of October, as usual.”
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