Humidity and thunderstorms creep back into NJ’s forecast Monday
What a weekend! It's incredibly rare that we get a perfectly sunny, non-humid, thunderstorm-free, seasonably warm weekend here in New Jersey. And we've actually had several mainly pleasant weekends in a row. (Hopefully we keep that streak going!)
While last week was all about thunderstorms and severe weather, this last week of June is all about heat and humidity. Nothing oppressive, but we are definitely diving into the heart of air conditioning season.
Monday morning is starting off pleasant comfortable, with temperatures in the upper 50s (inland) to lower 60s (coast). We'll enjoy sunshine to start the day, before clouds roll in Monday afternoon. A passing shower will be possible in the afternoon hours too, as those clouds thicken up.
High temperatures will be similar to Sunday, in the mid 80s. Beaches will top out a few degrees cooler, closer to 80 degrees. In other words, another pretty nice summer day.
Dew points will tick upward slightly as Monday goes on too, potentially making conditions a bit stickier. Whether the humidity bump will be noticeable or not, I'm not positive.
A weak area of low pressure will pass through New Jersey late Monday night — more accurately, early Tuesday morning — with a quick round of showers and thunderstorms. There probably will be some pockets of heavier rain, fueled in part to our building atmospheric humidity. But widespread severe weather and a repeat of last week's flooding are not expected. It's just rain.
Clouds and rain may linger through much of Tuesday morning's commute. Then skies turn partly sunny by Tuesday afternoon, with highs in the mid 80s for the third day in a row. Again, humidity will be there, but not oppressive.
Temperatures will really get cooking starting on Wednesday, as mostly sunny skies push highs into the upper 80s away from the Jersey Shore. Inland South Jersey could very well hit 90 degrees, the first of several days in a row reaching that milestone...
Near 90 on Thursday. Near 90 on Friday. Possibly lower 90s on Saturday. I smell heat wave.
Our next cold front is currently scheduled to pass through New Jersey from Saturday afternoon through early Sunday morning. Rainfall looks unimpressive amongst the latest forecast model suite — just some scattered rain, fizzling out by the time it reaches the coast?
In any case, the air mass behind this front will be drier and slightly cooler. Sunnier skies, lower humidity, and lower to mid 80s on Sunday would be a fantastic end to the month of June.
Dan Zarrow is Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and realtime weather updates.