Let $lambda$ be an integer, and $f(z)=sum_{ngg-infty} a(n)q^n$ be a weakly holomorphic modular form of weight $lambda+frac 12$ on $Gamma_0(4)$ with integral coefficients. Let $ellgeq 5$ be a prime. Assume that the constant term $a(0)$ is not zero modulo $ell$. Further, assume that, for some positive integer $m$, the Fourier expansion of $(f|U_{ell^m})(z) = sum_{n=0}^infty b(n)q^n$ has the form [ (f|U_{ell^m})(z) equiv b(0) + sum_{i=1}^{t}sum_{n=1}^{infty} b(d_i n^2) q^{d_i n^2} pmod{ell}, ] where $d_1, ldots, d_t$ are square-free positive integers, and the operator $U_ell$ on formal power series is defined by [ left( sum_{n=0}^infty a(n)q^n right) bigg| U_ell = sum_{n=0}^infty a(ell n)q^n. ] Then, $lambda equiv 0 pmod{frac{ell-1}{2}}$. Moreover, if $tilde{f}$ denotes the coefficient-wise reduction of $f$ modulo $ell$, then we have [ biggl{ lim_{m rightarrow infty} tilde{f}|U_{ell^{2m}}, lim_{m rightarrow infty} tilde{f}|U_{ell^{2m+1}} biggr} = biggl{ a(0)theta(z), a(0)theta^ell(z) in mathbb{F}_{ell}[[q]] biggr}, ] where $theta(z)$ is the Jacobi theta function defined by $theta(z) = sum_{ninmathbb{Z}} q^{n^2}$. By using this result, we obtain the distribution of the Fourier coefficients of weakly holomorphic modular forms in congruence classes. This applies to the congruence properties for traces of singular moduli.