After a record six-week dry spell, rain is almost certain in Philadelphia on Sunday

Democratic and Republican presidential candidates have already made 39 campaign stops in Pennsylvania. The Phillies were a week away from a disappointing postseason, and the Eagles were bracing for a humiliating loss in Tampa Bay.

And in what seemed at the time to be the whole point of the Flyers’ exhibition game that day, it was raining in Philadelphia on September 28. Not much, but by noon it was over and officially 0.11 inches had fallen at the official rain gauge at Philadelphia International Airport.

Since then, no rain worth measuring has fallen for six weeks, but people who forecast for a living are all but promising that the streak will end on Sunday.

“We’re pretty confident about it,” said Amanda Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly. The weather service refrained from issuing a statement rain watch, however, she noted that the prospect of a quarter- to half-inch of rain caused meteorologists to become extremely excited.

Although no measurable rain has fallen in the PHL since September 28, no more than a quarter of an inch has fallen since September 7.

Assuming that happens, the rains are more or less a mundane remnant of a storm system that dumped 2 and 3 feet of snow in the Rockies, said John Feerick, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc.

But “by no means will it be a devastating drought rain,” he said.

For weeks, the Northeast has been blanketed by rain-repelling high-pressure downdrafts that have cut off a pipeline carrying moisture away from the Gulf of Mexico. The highs will subside enough to allow precipitation to develop, probably after sunset, and will last until the morning hours.

After that, it looks like the dry spell will return, as drought tends to breed drought. “When there is a drought, forecast a drought,” he said.

The forecast rainfall comes after a week in which the United States seemed to have achieved unprecedented unity – at least in terms of drought. Nearly 88% of the contiguous United States on Thursday, the interagency U.S. Drought Monitor found it to be at least “abnormally dry.”

This is a record high since the Drought Monitor began recording results in 2000. This map will likely change next Thursday given the storm in the West.

Dry conditions have been somewhat alleviated by the fact that they occur at a time when leaves and trees lose their thirst and people exploit less water, but drought and winds have sparked a series of bushfires.

Still, drought warnings are in effect across the region and across New Jersey, and brush fires have kept firefighters very busy.