The National Weather Service recorded an interesting weather pattern over the weekend at Philadelphia International Airport; trace amounts of snow, in the middle of a heatwave in July.
When you’re flying, it is best to be prepared for anything; flight delays, motion sickness, blazing hot or frigid fuselages, but snow in the middle of July? That’s not something anyone thinks about but, according to the National Weather Service, it’s not as rare as you’d think, Fox 43 explains:
Thunderstorms moving through the area produced small hail, which counts as a “trace” of snow in NWS’s climate reports since hail is frozen precipitation.
The Weather Service says that while this phenomenon is rare, it is not unheard of. There has been a daily record snowfall during the summer months (June - August) 14 times since 1911:
- July 14, 2024
- August 18, 2011
- August 1, 2011
- July 23, 2008
- July 18, 2006
- June 26, 1998
- June 9, 1993
- June 27, 1951
- August 17, 1939
- August 19, 1919
- July 13, 1919
- August 3, 1914
- July 24, 1913
- June 20, 1911
This weekend’s snow actually broke a record set in 1870! Look, I’ve lived in a snowy state my whole life, and there is a noticeable difference between snow and teeny tiny hail, but it’s close enough to make no difference to the National Weather Service, I guess.
The rough and weird weather didn’t hinder passengers too much, as there are no reports of flight cancelations or delays. Travelers got lucky; just last month a similar line of bad storms led to over 400 flights being canceled, according to CBS News.
Weather is getting wilder for air travel, but it’s not freak snow storms posing the biggest problems. Hot air is increasing the frequency of violent turbulence, as well as making it almost impossible to keep fuselages cool while on the ground. The hot air is also proving a problem for helicopters, which can’t move through the air in higher temperatures.
Erin Marquis writes for Jalopnik, which like the Root is owned by Go/Media