Good afternoon everyone. It has been a few days since I posted to the blog here. I had to work on Monday and Tuesday, and then went to see some basketball games on Monday night. Anyway, a bit has transpired since I last posted to the blog. I’ll try to get to it all. First, we’ll start with the unbelievable weather for this last day of summer here in Northwestern Middlesex County.

There indications earlier that today would be more of a summer day than fall. Fall actually begins at 11:09 PM EDT tonight. Forecasts called for temperatures to climb into the 80s. I didn’t really hit me until I went out for a jog a little bit before noon today. Admittedly, I didn’t prepare properly for the weather. I had a hooded sweatshirt and some sweatpants on for my run. I should have dressed more lightly, but I could lose a few extra pounds. It was surprisingly warm out despite the lower sun angle in the sky. While there was a good deal of blue sky, there was still a bit of moisture in the air. Summer wasn’t letting go too easily.

After a morning low of 57 degrees this morning, the mercury steadily climbed up into the 80s with higher humidity. The humidity level was at 100 percent, and has dropped to 49 percent as of the most recent report. The temperature has reached 87 degrees as of 2:45 PM with a dew point of 67 degrees reached at 1:40 PM. The combination of heat and humidity has pushed the heat index up to just under 90 degrees as of 2:47 PM. There’s a slight chance that we could reach 90 degrees for the 39th time since May 7th. Regardless, this has been the warmest day that we’ve had here in Central Jersey in two weeks. Following a high of 90 degrees on September 8th, we’ve only seen the mercury climb to 80 or above once (on September 19th).

Yesterday, the temperature only reached 75 degrees for a high while the morning low was 46.4 degrees, the lowest temperature so far this month in South Plainfield. The average temperature of 60.7 degrees gave us 4.3 heating degree days, which was the most so far this month. Things rebounded today for an average temperature so far of 72.3 degrees, and a diurnal temperature range of just under 30 degrees. The balmy weather today gave us 7.3 cooling degree days. Looking at the local forecast, we will go through a seesaw of temperatures over the next few days. Currently, we have high pressure over the Southeast, which is producing a southwesterly flow that is bringing very warm and humid air from the south.

There is a long frontal boundary covering much of the northern third of the country. It was responsible for producing severe weather in the Chicago area including Wheeling, Illinois. Microbursts caused high winds, lightning, and heavy downpours in the Northern Illinois area including Wheeling and Hegewisch. Garages were lifted off their foundations, trees uprooted, and tree limbs up to 16 inches in diameter were downed along with power lines. The severe weather has continued today in Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota. Strong storms brought heavy rains to Indianapolis earlier this afternoon. Strong to severe thunderstorms are now moving into Pennsylvania.

Severe thunderstorm watches are already in effect from Central Pennsylvnia into Maryland, and Virginia. Places such as Williamsport, Harrisburg, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. are already under the gun. This weather will continue to march eastward toward our neck of the woods later this afternoon, and this evening. The National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly, New Jersey has already issued a special weather statement saying that strong to severe thunderstorms should move through the area between 5:30 and 9:00 PM.

So, we could see a repeat of what happened last Thursday when severe thunderstorms rolled through the area, and produced high winds, hail, lightning, and a couple of tornadoes in New York City. We’ll see. Even if it doesn’t though, it has been one summer to remember, and we could see some more fireworks on Friday with temperatures climbing above 90 for sure, and possibly another round of severe weather.