Philadelphia International Airport may not be the most-welcoming venue in the region, but it remains one of the warmest — at least in terms of temperature.
A hard freeze early Friday, with temperatures falling into the 20s at several locations officially ended the growing season throughout the region, said Sarah Johnson, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly.
However, the official Philadelphia thermometer at the airport (which actually is across the Delco line) bottomed out at 36.
The airport site is notorious for its “heat island” influences, being in the proximity of runways and buildings. The automated thermometer also can be affected by breezes off a nearby swamp and the Delaware River, but not much in the way of wind was blowing overnight.
Johnson said it wasn’t just the heat island effect in this instance. Calm winds are ideal for allowing the heat stored during the day to escape into space, and that they were at their very calmest near the center of high pressure, or heavier air, to the south of the city.
In Ocean City, Md., it dropped to 29, and in South Jersey, Millville reported a low of 27, and Toms River, 23.
Readings are due to head into the 60s Friday afternoon, and it’s been on he dry side lately, and the weather service has issued an advisory for outdoor-fire danger potential.
Rain is expected overnight, but it is forecast to shut-off well before the start of the annual Rocky Run at 8 a.m. Temperatures Saturday morning will be in the mid-50s with light winds.
Major changes arrive next week, with daytime temperatures Monday, Veterans Day, and Tuesday in the 40s, about where they should be in December. Another round of freezing readings are expected Tuesday morning, but it will be a close call at PHL.
The airport is not the best place to measure temperature, meteorologists agree, but it has been the Philadelphia climate site for 85 years, and moving it would mean another discontinuity in the climate record. Plus, the automated observing system can’t measure snow, so humans have to be available to take on that chore on a 24-hour basis.
Unrelated to either the temperature or the flight reductions due to the federal government shutdown, this year it again ranked last among major airports in customer satisfaction in the 2025 J.D. Power survey.
