00:00 - From the Ban Family Studios in the Department

00:03 - of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at Penn State.

00:07 - This is Weather World.

00:20 - Good evening and welcome to Weather World.

00:22 - It's September 1st, 2026.

00:24 - I'm Caitlin Corrie joined here today by Marissa Berger.

00:26 - Now, Marissa, it's the first day of meteorological fall,

00:29 - but it is definitely not feeling like fall out there.

00:31 - No, it really feels like mid-summer.

00:33 - Not only is it warm, but it is extremely muggy out there.

00:37 - And Caitlin, it looks like

00:38 - that's not going to leave us, at least during the short term forecast.

00:42 - Yeah, we'll hear more about that from you in just a minute here.

00:44 - Also coming up on tonight's show will have a feature

00:47 - on the spotted lanternfly done by 2025 grad Tyler Hughes.

00:50 - But first, here's Marissa.

00:53 - And as Caitlin just mentioned, not feeling like the first day

00:55 - of meteorological fall. And that started this morning.

00:58 - Look at these sunrise temperatures upper 60s to middle 70s.

01:02 - The overnight lows last night,

01:04 - about 10 to 15 degrees above average for this time of the year.

01:08 - And with the heating of the day, they soared into the 80s

01:12 - and 90s across the entire Commonwealth.

01:15 - And look at the dew points.

01:17 - Yes, it's extremely muggy out there.

01:19 - This is as close to as muggy as you can get, even in the middle

01:23 - of summer across the Keystone State well into the 70s.

01:27 - Very, very muggy out there.

01:28 - When you combine the two, it feels like it's in the low one,

01:33 - hundreds across the Susquehanna Valley, even pushing into the central mountains.

01:37 - This is actually dangerous heat.

01:39 - So if you are outside and you plan on doing any outdoor

01:41 - activities, take frequent, frequent breaks as well as hydrate

01:46 - as often as you can because it is extremely dangerous out there.

01:49 - When you have heat indices into the triple digit mark.

01:52 - There are also a few thunderstorms that are now beginning to fire up

01:55 - across the northern tier and into the endless mountains.

01:58 - We are on the edge of a ridge of a high pressure system.

02:01 - Here you can see this ridge across the eastern U.S.

02:04 - and along the periphery.

02:06 - That's where showers and thunderstorms are firing up.

02:09 - And that ridge is not going anywhere in the coming days.

02:11 - So I think we're going to continue to see that threat

02:14 - for showers and thunderstorms.

02:16 - Not all day rainfall, but just the threat for those as we go into the coming days.

02:20 - As that ridge continues to stay in place,

02:23 - we're going to have that extreme warmth that will continue

02:26 - from the Southern Plains over into the Mid-Atlantic.

02:28 - Again, highs this afternoon, well into the 90s and one hundreds across the plains.

02:33 - And that ridge again, not going anywhere as we go into at least tomorrow

02:37 - and Thursday, things will change as we get into the end of the week,

02:41 - but at least in the coming days, we will continue to be right on the edge of this.

02:44 - And that's going to allow the chances

02:46 - for those showers and thunderstorms to push into the Keystone State.

02:50 - Going back to the satellite radar here, here's that ridge.

02:53 - But I want to point out this system here near the Texas coast

02:57 - that is actually Tropical Storm Edward that made landfall

03:01 - earlier this afternoon with winds of 60mph.

03:05 - It's a very small storm in terms of its size,

03:08 - but it is quite gusty,

03:09 - and it's going to bring some heavy rainfall to parts of southeastern Texas.

03:13 - And southwestern Louisiana.

03:14 - The actual landfall was in Louisiana,

03:16 - and that will continue to bring some rainfall to that part of the country.

03:20 - We will not be impacted by that high pressure to our south

03:24 - is going to allow that warm and muggy air to stay nearby.

03:27 - There is a boundary at the surface not too far away

03:31 - that's going to help some of these storms fire up as we go into the evening hours

03:35 - tonight, another round tomorrow morning possible, and then another round

03:39 - late tomorrow as the front drapes itself across central Pennsylvania,

03:44 - the eastern half of the state,

03:45 - actually a little bit cooler tomorrow, Western Pennsylvania is still sizzling.

03:49 - And then on Thursday, this is the beginning of the end

03:52 - of the mugginess as another front pushes through the state that could provide

03:56 - another round of strong storms throughout the day on Thursday.

04:00 - But once that moves through, we begin to feel some relief.

04:02 - So tonight, a few storms across eastern Pennsylvania.

04:05 - Tomorrow morning we may see one round of storms move through

04:09 - and then another round tomorrow evening into the overnight hours.

04:12 - And then you won't see it on this particular model,

04:15 - but we're going to continue to see the threat

04:16 - for some showers and thunderstorms throughout the day on Thursday,

04:19 - starting in northern Pennsylvania and moving to the south as that front

04:23 - pushes in from the north tonight, though, not like fall at all

04:26 - those low temperatures once again, 10 to 15 degrees above average,

04:30 - upper 60s, middle 70s.

04:33 - We have that chance for the strong thunderstorms across eastern Pennsylvania

04:36 - this evening.

04:37 - And then once those move through, I think we could have some patchy fog.

04:40 - We're not going to see much in the way of winds.

04:42 - It's very muggy out there.

04:44 - So a very uncomfortable night in store tomorrow.

04:46 - We're going to continue to feel uncomfortable,

04:48 - especially in the western half of the state

04:50 - where high temperatures are once again well above average.

04:53 - Eastern Pennsylvania a little bit cooler as we have easterly flow

04:56 - as that boundary drapes itself across the central part of the state.

04:59 - Again, that could fire off the chance

05:00 - for some showers and thunderstorms, some of which could be strong on Thursday.

05:05 - That next front moves in from the north.

05:07 - It's the last muggy moment as it brings in cooler air behind it on Friday,

05:11 - but still warm on Thursday.

05:12 - Still muggy and still the threat of strong thunderstorms.

05:15 - We'll be back in a moment with a feature on spotted lanternfly as.

05:46 - Here's a riddle

05:47 - what's black and red and spotted all over an invasive species

05:51 - whose population continues to grow in Pennsylvania, the spotted lanternfly

05:56 - spotted lanternfly were first spotted here a decade ago.

05:59 - Brian Walsh is a horticulture educator and spotted lanternfly researcher at Penn

06:03 - State Extension,

06:04 - one of the groups that has been monitoring the spread of lantern flies

06:08 - in the Commonwealth.

06:09 - And he says spotted lanternfly are now here to stay.

06:13 - The lanternfly was discovered in 2014, in Berks County,

06:16 - and when it was found, it was in a relatively localized area

06:21 - pretty much on the on the border line of two townships and

06:25 - it being so localized, there was an immediate effort to eradicate it.

06:30 - As you know now, it's in, I think, 17 different states.

06:34 - So, eradication is off the table, indigenous to China and Vietnam.

06:39 - They have spread invasive lead to Japan, South Korea and the United States.

06:44 - And the agricultural impacts can be major, especially to one particular crop.

06:49 - The primary concern here is the, the grape crops.

06:54 - The grape crops are really threatened by this insect,

06:57 - without a lot of intervention from the growers.

06:59 - And in the, way of insecticides,

07:03 - additional insecticide applications,

07:06 - you know, they can lose their, their entire vineyard pretty quickly.

07:09 - But a lot of people don't know

07:11 - what I did not know prior to myself, prior to to the lanternfly

07:15 - is that the Erie region is a major grape

07:18 - growing region, for the United States

07:21 - at Weather World, we've reported on lanternfly before,

07:24 - but new research is connecting lanternfly populations to weather and climate.

07:29 - Lanternfly grow and thrive at temperatures above

07:31 - about 53°F every day.

07:34 - The temperature remains above this threshold is known

07:37 - as a growing degree day, and the more growing degree days there are,

07:41 - the more lanternfly can develop.

07:43 - This may help to explain which areas of Pennsylvania

07:46 - are seeing more lanternfly than others.

07:49 - The number of growing degree days

07:52 - that lanternfly need to successfully reproduce

07:55 - don't exist across all portions of the state

07:59 - and the northern tier, and some of the more,

08:03 - the higher elevation areas in the state look like they shouldn't

08:08 - be strong contenders for spotted lanternfly to exist there.

08:13 - But we have to we have to put a big asterix asterisk next to that.

08:18 - And saying that

08:20 - that's based on more and more climate data.

08:23 - If the modeling is correct

08:26 - with climate change,

08:28 - I think we can say safely that it will

08:32 - it will successfully reproduce and exist

08:35 - further north and at higher elevations than it would have before.

08:39 - Adult lantern flies begin to lay eggs in the fall.

08:42 - And research is showing that daylight may play a role in when this process begins.

08:47 - Generally, year after year, we've not seen

08:51 - many eggs being laid

08:54 - prior to the equinox, and we're not in 100% on that,

08:58 - but it seems to be holding pretty well that it is a daylight

09:01 - driven, phenomenon that triggers them to start laying their eggs.

09:06 - And once they start laying their eggs

09:07 - in the fall, the females will continue to lay eggs until they,

09:13 - until they are killed by a freeze.

09:14 - And not just a frost, but a hard freeze.

09:17 - But Walsh says their eggs aren't sensitive to temperature like adults,

09:21 - and are adapted to survive even through our harsh Pennsylvania winters.

09:26 - Every winter

09:26 - we get a cold snap and we get asked, Will that kill a lot of lanternfly eggs?

09:30 - And the answer is unfortunately, no.

09:33 - Lanternfly eggs are really, really well adapted to go through

09:37 - extremely cold temperatures for a long duration.

09:40 - So no, our cold snaps that we get, you know, even if we get the polar vortex

09:45 - and we have a several week long cold snap,

09:48 - it's not likely going to impact spotted lanternfly eggs.

09:52 - So, the viability of not the probably hatched just fine in the spring.

09:57 - You can help to curb lanternfly populations in Pennsylvania

10:01 - by keeping a close eye for lanternfly eggs, which look a bit

10:04 - like dried mud and can appear on any hard surface outside,

10:08 - including manmade ones like this stone wall.

10:11 - If you see eggs,

10:12 - the best thing to do is destroy them, and that's as easy as just popping them.

10:17 - Breaking them the kind of a pop like pimples.

10:20 - So, that that's an effective way to kill them.

10:23 - If you're a little squeamish about that, you can scrape them into, hand

10:26 - sanitizer or rubbing alcohol and then throw them out in the trash.

10:30 - Remember to check your car or truck for signs of lanternfly eggs.

10:33 - This is particularly important

10:35 - in order to avoid spreading lanternfly eggs to new areas.

10:39 - It's an important thing to not take those eggs with you.

10:42 - If you have a boat or a camper, or just even a vehicle

10:45 - that you don't use often and you're going to go to a new location,

10:49 - don't take that camper park somewhere in the fall that's loaded

10:53 - with later flies, and take it to somewhere where it's not in the spring.

10:57 - There's a good chance that there's going to be lanternfly eggs underneath of it.

11:00 - And, we've certainly seen, big state, big jumps across multiple states

11:05 - exactly that way on on campers, things like that.

11:09 - If you see an adult lanternfly, Walsh says to kill it

11:12 - any way you can and make a report to the state.

11:15 - So if somebody sees land or flies, particularly

11:20 - where they're not known to exist yet, definitely report them.

11:24 - You can go right on the Penn State Extension web page and report them

11:28 - if you cannot, if you're not 100% sure

11:32 - if you're in an area where it's not been seen before,

11:34 - try and grab a picture of it, or grab the bug and get it to an extension

11:38 - office or department of Agriculture office and get it reported.

11:43 - All of us are

11:43 - affected by weather and climate, and that includes invasive pests too.

11:47 - As our climate changes, spotted lanternfly could move farther

11:51 - and farther north into northern Pennsylvania and beyond.

11:54 - Fortunately, there are some things we can each do to help

11:57 - curb their population and keep them from harming Pennsylvania's agriculture.

12:01 - Keep a close eye out for lanternfly eggs over the next few months,

12:04 - and if you see any, do your part and squash them.

12:07 - For Weather World, I'm Tyler Hughes.

12:20 - We're in store for another warm and muggy night

12:23 - across the Commonwealth and the National or.

12:25 - The Storm Prediction Center

12:26 - has just issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the entirety of eastern

12:29 - Pennsylvania through midnight, and that involves the chance

12:32 - for some thunderstorms that could contain some small hail and gusty winds.

12:36 - So keep an eye out for that.

12:37 - Once those move through,

12:39 - we're just going to be left with the chance for some patchy

12:41 - fog as we have the very high humidity and the light winds out there.

12:44 - Again, low temperatures tonight in the 60s and 70s.

12:47 - Tomorrow another warm day across western Pennsylvania

12:49 - where we could see a few rounds of thunderstorms.

12:51 - One in the early morning and then another one in the afternoon.

12:54 - Heat advisory

12:55 - posted for southwestern Pennsylvania in the eastern half of the state.

12:58 - It will be a little bit cooler than today with highs in the 70s and 80s again.

13:03 - Chances of thunderstorms throughout the afternoon.

13:05 - Thursday a cold front is going to finally start approaching from the north.

13:09 - That's going to bring some thunderstorms to northern Pennsylvania early in the day

13:13 - and then farther to the south in the latter part of the day, Caitlin.

13:17 - So it looks like we've got two more days with this intense heat and humidity,

13:21 - but then things start to get a little bit better

13:24 - as we go towards the end of this week.

13:25 - Yeah, I got to keep on

13:26 - keep an eye out on the weather as you're heading out there the next couple days.

13:29 - Absolutely.

13:29 - Well, thank you for your forecast, Marissa,

13:31 - and thank you for joining us here tonight.

13:32 - Be sure to come back tomorrow with the extended forecast.

13:34 - We'll have Labor Day weekend from all of us here at Weather World.

13:37 - Have a great weekend.