Brief Respite For NJ Residents Ends With Two Straight Days Of 90 Degree Weather

An article in the Star-Ledger last weekend indicated that after the first heatwave of the summer was broken by severe weather, the heat and humidity wouldn’t return for a while. Perhaps the article misspoke. Following a respite of nearly a week from the temperatures being in the upper 90s and heat index values soaring to 110 or higher, people around the Garden State were back in the broiler.

On Thursday, the mercury climbed to just under 90 degrees here in South Plainfield. Friday was even warmer. During the afternoon, the high temperature soared to over 95 degrees here in Northwestern Middlesex County. The humidity was on the rise as well. If you recall in my GWC Video Report on Wednesday, conditions were rather dry in South Plainfield with humidity down to 37 percent. Forty-eight hours later, dew points were in the mid 70s.

The combination of the heat and humidity brought about a significant rise in the heat or misery index. On Friday afternoon, the heat index in South Plainfield peaked at 109.7 degrees. Still well short of last week’s mark of 112 degrees. I had gone out for a couple walks during the afternoon because I had some errands to run, and I worked up a pretty good sweat in the process. Winds have slackened off a bit from Wednesday as well with peak gusts of only 7 miles per hour on Friday.

With the hot weather dominating things for the past couple weeks, I almost forgot about the fact that we have not had a lot of rain in the past couple weeks. After the storm that pushed through on June 12th and 13th, there has been only 0.83 inches of rainfall and two days of measurable rainfall. Those two days were the severe weather events on June 22nd (0.35 inches) and June 25th (0.48 inches). Speaking of rain and severe weather, we could be in store for some on Saturday. Thunderstorms are possible in the afternoon and evening, and some of them could be severe.

Temperatures are forecast to be in the mid to upper 90s again on Saturday. After the storms push through on Saturday evening, temperatures will only be slightly cooler on Sunday. This latest heat wave is expected to last into Monday with highs still in the upper 80s on Tuesday.