Jan. 10—Berks County escaped major flooding and widespread power outages that affected the Philadelphia area despite getting over 2 inches of rain in most places from Tuesday afternoon into the first few hours of Wednesday along with wind gusts of more than 50 mph.

The Schuylkill River crested at 12.57 feet around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at the village of Berne in Tilden Township before dipping below the flood stage of 12 feet before noon.

In Reading, the river was expected to crest at 14.5 feet at the Penn Street Bridge by mid-afternoon Wednesday, still 1 foot below the flood stage of 15.5 feet.

About 30 miles downstream, in Pottstown, Montgomery County, which according to preliminary data received more than 4 inches of rainfall, the Schuylkill was slightly above the 12.5-foot flood stage as of 8:30 a.m. and was expected to crest at 13.8 feet by 1 p.m.

Blue Marsh Lake rose a few feet Wednesday morning and was about 290 feet above sea level by noon, still well below the spillway in Bern Township, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

About 2,200 outages in Berks were reported as of noon Wednesday Met-Ed’s parent company, FirstEnergy Corp. The outages were predominantly in eastern Berks.

Jeffrey R. Stoudt, Berks weather historian and founder of the Berks Area Rainfall Network, said the forecast for 2 to 3 inches of rain for Berks with locally greater amounts proved to be right on.

The vast majority of reports from weather enthusiasts in Berks and Schuylkill counties fell within that range, with several reporting over 3 inches.

Rainfall runoff in Schuylkill County contributes significantly to the flow of the main stem of the Schuylkill River, Stoudt explained.

A daily amount recorded for Tuesday at Reading Regional Airport, the official rainfall recording site for Berks, was 1.76 inches, which is one of the few reporting stations below 2 inches, Stoudt said. It was still enough to break the record for the date of 1.66 inches set on Jan. 9, 1978.

If you heard thunder overnight, you weren’t dreaming.

“The late storm ended with lightning and thunder during the 2 a.m. hour very early Wednesday, a very early first occurrence of thunder for our region and the first occurrence of thunder for some since mid-September,” Stoudt wrote in an email.

The temperature was more typical of September than January.

“Temperatures, even near midnight, flirted with 60 at some places,” Stoudt said.

This resulted in rapid melting of snow left over from the weekend storm that dumped 4 to 6 inches of snow in Berks.

If the ground wasn’t saturated before Tuesday, it sure is now, with more heavy rain in the forecast for Friday night.

Much of Berks has received nearly a foot of rain since early December, Stoudt said.

Though it’s rare to get much rain in December or January, it’s not unprecedented within the last 40 years, Stoudt said.

In 1983, after a wet November, as much as 9 to 13 inches of December precipitation was recorded in much of Berks, the great majority as rain, he said.

More recently, two-month totals of 8 to 12 inches (rain or equivalent), fell during December 1995 and January 1996, also after a relatively wet November.

“Much of this fell as snow, enough to surpass the astounding snowfall record of 69 inches set two snow seasons earlier by mid- January, keyed by 34 inches on 7-8 January which became and still is Reading’s official greatest single snowstorm amount,” Stoudt wrote.

Multiple heavy rainstorms and enormous snowmelt within Berks and much of Pennsylvania resulted in widespread severe flooding that winter, he added.