Good evening everyone. I was just checking out the latest weather data from Greg’s Weather Center, and the latest forecast from the Mount Holly office of the National Weather Service, and the bottom line is that the great weather that we’ve been having is going to come to an end. Looking at the current GWC data for the month of April 2008, one can see that there has been no measurable rainfall in South Plainfield over the past 13 days. However, looking at the area forecast from the NWS, there is a chance of rain from tonight all the way until Tuesday afternoon.

The greatest chance for rain is on Saturday night (60 percent) and Monday and Monday night (70 percent). There is even a chance for Thunderstorms during the day on Monday. During the forecast period, high temperatures are expected to range between 58 and 64 degrees with the max temperature occurring on Saturday and the minimum happening on Tuesday. Meanwhile, lows are expected to range between 38 and 52 with the minimum low temperature occurring on Tuesday night as things clear out, and more infrared energy is expected to escape into the atmosphere. Looking at the latest radar courtesy of the Weather Channel, there is a line of showers in the central portion of Pennsylvania stretching from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre from the northeast portion of the state to southwest of the capital of Harrisburg near Hagerstown, Maryland.

Fortunately for South Plainfield and the rest of Middlesex County, and the rest of the Central Jersey region, this line of rainy weather looks very weak, doesn’t appear to have enough legs to withstand the rugged terrain in Eastern Pennsylvania, and eventually reach New Jersey intact. However, if you look out into the rest of the country, the radar of the Eastern Central United States shows a line of strong to severe thunderstorms stretching from Wisconsin through the outskirts of Chicago down through Illinois into Missouri, Arkansas, and Eastern Texas. Numerous tornado and thunderstorm watches are in effect in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and extreme Southeastern Oklahoma. The rough weather from this region is pushing eastward, and will eventually make it into the Central Jersey region over the next few days.

Taking a look again at the weather for the month, the high temperature on Friday reached 72 degrees at 2:10 PM EDT. Although the weather was quite wonderful on Friday, it wasn’t as warm as it was over the past couple days with temperatures ranging in the mid to upper 70s. Within the past 15 days, the mercury has climbed to at least 72 degrees eight times. Furthermore, the mean temperature for the day has been 54.5 degrees or higher over the past nine days. Through the first 25 days this month, the average mean temperature has been 53.8 degrees in South Plainfield. The mean temperature for the year so far is 40.8 degrees with the January mean reaching 33.7, the February mean climbing to 34.4 degrees, and March’s mean topping 41.7 degrees.