Warm end to 2024 summer in Philadelphia followed by a cooler start to fall

It'll be a very nice last day of summer across the area on Saturday with high temperatures near 80 degrees. Come Saturday night, there will be some cloud coverage with temperatures dropping into the low 60s.

A spotty shower will roll through later in the night. Those clouds and sprinkles could run over into early Sunday morning before the sun comes back out and temperatures cool down.

But this is a good thing because our area is in much need of rainfall. So far this month, our area has only seen .4" of rainfall which is much lower than the average for this time of year.

However, we won't be getting any rain that will be substantial this weekend.

While there is an exceptional drought across the Ohio Valley currently, the Philadelphia area is making its way into the abnormally dry and moderate drought stage. So you'll want to keep an eye on your plants and lawn because they may need a little bit more watering as we head into this week and next.

We have a frontal boundary off to the west led by warm air in front of it, which is giving us warm temperatures near the 80s today. Behind the boundary though is cooler air as the high pressure builds in and brings us a drier air mass.

As we head into Saturday afternoon, the sunshine breaks out and we'll have winds out of the northeast keeping it cooler around the shore. The front then moves in around 11 p.m. Saturday night and we'll see some showers across the area.

Some places could pick up more than .5" of rain, but much of the area will see just a light shower.

Once the front and the associated showers clear the region Sunday afternoon, cooler temperatures will begin to filter in through lasting into early next week. Sunday's high will only be in the mid 70s with lows in the low 60s.

This dose of slightly cooler conditions will be perfect with Sunday being the first official day of fall — the autumnal equinox is at 8:43 a.m. on Sunday. Monday appears to be even cooler with temps struggling to climb out of the 60s.

Speaking of fall, some early fall color is starting to appear in the Poconos and across northern Pennsylvania.

Peak color in the Poconos typically occurs through the first half of October with peak color in the Delaware Valley occurring during mid-late October.

Right now, the next decent chance of rain could come from a cold front that may make it into the eastern half of the United States into the second half of next week — also watching a potential disturbance in the Gulf that could feed in some tropical moisture next week.

Your NEXT Weather team will keep you posted.