Early Taste Of Fall Moves Into Garden State

As predicted a strong cold front moved through the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic by Thursday afternoon, and left major changes in its wake.  After having a high temperature of 85 degrees on Wednesday afternoon in Northwestern Middlesex County, and topping out at 74 degrees by late morning on Thursday, the mercury took a steep dive.

For the first time since May 6th, the temperature bottomed out in the 40s.  The minimum temperature on Friday morning dipped to 45.6 degrees here in South Plainfield.  So, in less than 24 hours, the mercury nearly dropped 30 degrees.  The thermometer fell nearly 40 degrees in less than 48 hours.  With strong high pressure moving in, the barometer climbed from 29.84 on Thursday morning to 30.29 earlier Friday morning.

Wind gusts peaked at 14 miles per hour on Thursday while the 10 minute average was 3 miles per hour.  There was only a tenth of an inch of rain on Thursday.  One good thing that came from this powerful front along the East Coast is that it helped push what is now Hurricane Maria away from the United States.  High temperatures are expected to only reach the mid 60s on Friday as the front brought us our first taste of fall.

Temperatures will gradually begin to warm up as we go through the weekend into next week.  Highs on Monday and Tuesday are only expected to get into the low 70s.  So far, the average temperature in South Plainfield during this September is just under 70 degrees.  With Thursday’s rain, we’ve now received a little more than four inches of rain here in Northwestern Middlesex County.