Flood Advisory In Effect Across Much Of Garden State

Over the past several days, the weather here in New Jersey has been unsettled to say the least.  There have been cloudy conditions with high humidity boosting up dew points and heat indices on Wednesday and Thursday.  Fortunately though, there has not been a lot of rain until now.  

A slow moving cold front has been trying to push through the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, but it is expected to stall.  In addition, an upper level low that is situated in the Upper Midwest is anticipated to be cut off from the normal jet stream flow, and that may not be good for the eastern third of the country.  Already there has been a wave of moderate to heavy rain that pushed through  much of the Garden State on Friday.

Here in South Plainfield, there has been 0.61 inches of rain.  Other areas in Central Jersey including Middlesex County have had an inch of rain.  More could be on the way.  In response, the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, New Jersey has issued a Flood Advisory for much of New Jersey including Middlesex County on Friday morning.  Counties in Jersey that are affected include:  Burlington, Camden, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren.

The advisory is in effect until later on Friday afternoon, and indicates that residents should be aware of street flooding and ponding of roads where there is poor drainage.  So far this month, there has been 4.78 inches of rain here in Northwestern Middlesex County.  Couple that with the 15.34 inches of rain in August, there has been 20.12 inches in the past 54 days.  Since the new GWC weather station was installed in mid-June, there has been 25.29 inches of rain.

With the stalling of the front, and the breakdown in upper air flow, conditions are forecast to remain rainy and unsettled until the early part of next week.  Feeding into the moisture is a trough of low pressure in the Atlantic, which may not develop into anything tropical, but will still provide more moisture.  There is a high probability of heavy rain for late Friday afternoon and Friday night, and the threat of showers and storms will linger into Tuesday.