Hello, Irene?

Monday, August 22 was a stunningly glorious day, in contrast to the tropical muggies of the previous few.

It looks like August 2011 could turn out to be an all-time record for amount of precipitation in southeastern PA; for any month, although I find that hard to believe. As of this morning 13.0 inches has been recorded at Philly International Airport. The airport is coastal plain -- about 60 miles southeast from my current 'hometown' -- Upper Black Eddy. I'll look at the rainfall totals for the Piedmont and Highlands region for comparison, but it's probably close to what has fallen on Philly.

More to the point...the upper Delaware River watershed has had much more rain. I was hiking along Hornbeck Creek just a few days ago (Indian Ladders in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area) and the creek, seeps, springs and wetlands looked more like April -- all perky & shit. And if that part of the watershed gets dumped on - folks - if you live along the lower Delaware River, please beware! It's a hard rain gonna fall!

This coming weekend we could be looking at the first hurricane (or tropical storm) of the year if Irene tracks the way most of the models say it will. Here's AccuWeather's take on this rapidly developing storm.

If Irene does impact our region we'll experience some degree of flooding along the smaller creeks and rivers. The Delaware River is staying above 5' at the Rieglesville gage and that is an uncomfortable starting point for taking on a massive amount of tropical moisture.

By this Wednesday forecasters will have a pretty good handle on what we should expect from Irene.

PS: if you'd like to see Hornbeck Creek up close check out this link. Too damn close for me. Apologies for the ugly skinhead music, but the scenery is magnificent.