{"id":246587,"date":"2026-07-18T12:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/246587\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T12:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T12:15:10","slug":"severe-storms-possible-saturday-in-south-central-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/246587\/","title":{"rendered":"Severe storms possible Saturday in South-Central Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

Severe storms possible Saturday in South-Central Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

Severe weather threat developing later in the day as a cold front moves in.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGood morning. Happy Saturday, everyone. We continue to be plagued by wildfire smoke and haze, as you can see here in our Harrisburg sky cam. Uh, it is forecast to improve as we head through the day, but right now it is still, uh, not, uh, at healthy levels. We do have limited visibility in some locations down to 1374 in Harrisburg, 25 miles there in Carlisle, and it’s been fluctuating all morning. But just keep in mind you could see visibility lowering because. Because of the smoke across the area, here’s the current air quality right now. It is still unhealthy for most locations, but notice this darker purple, this swath here of more harmful, uh, air quality across portions of York and Dolphin up into Cumberland, Perry, and our northwestern counties Mifflin and Juniata. Now as we look at the air quality forecast, it’s expected to improve to more moderate, from poor to moderate conditions as we head through the afternoon hours. And here’s *** look at the smoke forecast. It just kind of erode and lift on out of here, and that’s because *** warm front will lift through this morning. Our winds will shift to the southwest and pick up, and it’s going to help to scour out this wildfire smoke finally after the last couple of days of dealing with it. Now, as of right now, we do not have an air quality alert in effect. You can see it is down to the south and to the east. Uh, there was some talk about *** code orange air quality alert which would be unhealthy for sensitive groups. Um, and as soon as that is issued, if it is issued, I will let you. No, but as of right now we do not have one. The other concern today will be the threat for strong to severe storms. We are outlooked at an enhanced risk, which is *** 3 on *** scale of 1 to 5, and that includes the entire Susquehanna Valley. In fact, much of the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast could get quite active later today, mainly in the afternoon and the evening hours. So the storm impacts, the biggest threat and main concern will be damaging winds with these storms. Heavy rain could lead to some isolated flash. Flooding and large hail and tornadoes cannot be ruled out. Those are possibilities as well. So your news 8 storm team forecast this morning. There may be *** few showers out there, otherwise it’s cloudy, smoky, poor air quality. Temperatures in the mid 70s at 9 o’clock. We’re looking at highs right around 86 now. The sooner that smoke clears and we get that sunshine, that could really help to enhance these storms. If the smoke lingers *** little longer, that may inhibit storm, uh, introduction or storm development. *** little sooner, so we’ll keep an eye on that. Scattered storms are still possible though during the evening hours and still on the severe side is possible. Storms end tonight. Clouds slowly clear. The humidity will be dropping. Temperatures will, uh, end up around 70 degrees tomorrow morning. Plenty of sunshine for the second half of the weekend. It’s going to be, uh, less humid, and the air quality will be back to more moderate levels. Temperatures in the low 80s, so it does look much better for the second half of the weekend. Temperatures right now in the Low to mid 60s in *** couple areas right around 71 degrees like Chambersburg, Harrisburg, Gettysburg, 69 in Carlisle, 66 in Lancaster. Now the dew points right now are not so bad. We’re in the low 60s, but notice the 60s and 70s to the south and southwest. This is where our warm front is. Once that warm front lifts through, the dew points are going to climb. You’re going to feel that humidity *** lot more as we head into the afternoon hours. You can see some showers and storms developing out ahead of the front as I zoo. Zoom on in though, we just have *** couple of showers. There may be *** rumble of thunder, but I think the best chance for thunder will be this afternoon and this evening. Uh, taking *** look at our predictor real quickly, you could see just *** couple of showers this morning, but once we get beyond 2 o’clock, you’ll really want to keep an eye to the sky for these showers and storms to make their way through the area. Cold front will come through early tomorrow morning. Northwest winds set up, bringing in that lower humidity. Lots of sunshine as high pressure dominates our weather, not only tomorrow but also on Monday. And winds will shift more to the south on Monday, so it’s going to be *** pretty pleasant couple of days. Your 10 day forecast shows storm chances do return on Tuesday. In fact, we’re already outlooked for severe weather, damaging winds, the main threat. So I have made it an impact day. Uh, that front will come through, could linger into early Tuesday with some showers and storms. Otherwise we’re dry, uh, for the rest of the day, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with temperatures near seasonable averages by next week.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Severe storms possible Saturday in South-Central Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

Severe weather threat developing later in the day as a cold front moves in.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"WGAL<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUpdated: 7:58 AM EDT Jul 18, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tEditorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSouth-Central Pennsylvania faces a stormy Saturday, with showers and thunderstorms early, then a greater severe weather threat developing later in the day as a cold front moves in.Saturday forecastA few showers and thunderstorms are possible this morning through early afternoon.Scattered thunderstorms may develop toward evening.The highest storm chance is between 2 p.m. and midnight.The Susquehanna Valley is under an Enhanced Risk for severe weather.Main threats include:Damaging wind gustsHeavy rain and isolated flash floodingA low risk of a spin-up tornadoLarge hailHumidity will rise, with highs in the mid-80s.Smoke will be thickest in the morning, then improve by afternoon. Sunday brings better air qualityHigh pressure builds in behind the front.Humidity drops gradually through the day.Highs will reach the mid-80s.Air quality should be moderate.Early next week outlookMonday: Mostly sunny, seasonable, and comfortable with dew points in the upper 50s.Tuesday into early Wednesday: Another chance for thunderstorms as the next cold front approaches.Wednesday: Slightly lower dew points as rain moves out.Thursday: Refreshing for July.Late-week trendTemperatures should stay near seasonal averages.Humidity will slowly increase again heading into the weekend.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\"12<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Air<\/p>\n

South-Central Pennsylvania faces a stormy Saturday, with showers and thunderstorms early, then a greater severe weather threat developing later in the day as a cold front moves in.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Smoke<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Smoke<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Alert<\/p>\n

Saturday forecast
\nA few showers and thunderstorms are possible this morning through early afternoon.Scattered thunderstorms may develop toward evening.The highest storm chance is between 2 p.m. and midnight.The Susquehanna Valley is under an Enhanced Risk for severe weather.Main threats include:Damaging wind gustsHeavy rain and isolated flash floodingA low risk of a spin-up tornadoLarge hailHumidity will rise, with highs in the mid-80s.Smoke will be thickest in the morning, then improve by afternoon.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Storm<\/p>\n

Sunday brings better air qualityHigh pressure builds in behind the front.Humidity drops gradually through the day.Highs will reach the mid-80s.Air quality should be moderate.Early next week outlookMonday: Mostly sunny, seasonable, and comfortable with dew points in the upper 50s.Tuesday into early Wednesday: Another chance for thunderstorms as the next cold front approaches.Wednesday: Slightly lower dew points as rain moves out.Thursday: Refreshing for July.Late-week trendTemperatures should stay near seasonal averages.Humidity will slowly increase again heading into the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Severe storms possible Saturday in South-Central Pennsylvania Severe weather threat developing later in the day as a cold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9625,4329,74127,20391,57307,105497,3519,54680,105496,460,105499,28,30,29,7063,54483,105498,15304,3689,6592,1837,26351,8876],"class_list":["post-246587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-central","tag-day","tag-dew-point","tag-early-afternoon","tag-early-wednesday","tag-great-severe-weather-threat","tag-high","tag-humidity","tag-mid-80","tag-morning","tag-next-cold-front-approach","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-saturday","tag-severe","tag-severe-storm-possible-saturday","tag-south","tag-south-central-pennsylvania","tag-storms","tag-sunday","tag-thunderstorm","tag-upper-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}