Wednesday’s Severe Weather Breaks Back Of 4th Heat Wave, But Weather Remains Murky

On Wednesday, I traveled through a good portion of Central Jersey tracking the severe weather including the thunderstorm that developed over South Amboy and moved down the Route 35 and 36 corridors during the mid-afternoon before coming home and taking in the storminess in Northwestern Middlesex County around dinner time.

While the storms caused a lot of damage in many parts of the New York Metropolitan area including Rockland County, Queens, and Long Island as well as a good deal of Northern New Jersey, South Plainfield once again appeared to have dodged a bullet. Although the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Northwestern Middlesex County before 5:00 PM on Wednesday, the region received only about a quarter of an inch of rain.

The storm cell that rolled through a good deal of Somerset, Middlesex, and Monmouth County around dinner time was estimated by doppler radar to have winds in excess of 60 miles per hour and nickel size hail. Over in Edison near the Metuchen border by Tano Mall, winds gusted, and the rain came down furiously. About a half an inch of rain fell there. However, a couple of reporting stations in South Plainfield only received 0.22 and 0.24 inches respectively according to CoCoRaHS. In addition, the winds in town didn’t really get any higher than 25 miles per hour.

Regardless of the damage or lack of damage these storms left behind, they served their purpose. Prior to their arrival in the mid to late afternoon on Wednesday, temperature and humidity levels soared. Newark reached 104 degrees. South Plainfield topped out at 102 degrees along with a heat index of 118 after 1:00 PM in the afternoon. Those marks were the highest all year. Meanwhile, the dew point in Northwestern Middlesex County reached 77 degrees. By 7:00 PM, the temperature had plummeted to 76 degrees while the heat index fell to about 80, and the dew point dropped to 74.

On top of breaking the latest heat wave of the summer, the storms brought some rainfall to areas that do need it. The problem was that the amount of rain wasn’t enough. With yesterday’s rain, there have been only five days of measurable rainfall since June 13th in South Plainfield. Total rain during the last 35 days has only been 1.62 inches of rain. In July alone, there had only been 0.76 inches of rain for the month, which is about an inch and a quarter below normal. So far this year, there has been approximately 13.58 inches of rain.

The severe weather onslaught started out quietly before lunch time in the Central Jersey area. Cumulus clouds began showing tremendous vertical development with all the heat and humidity in the atmosphere. The air was plenty unstable enough to produce what occurred on Wednesday. Cumulus clouds to the northeast of South Plainfield grew dramatically over the next hour. Simultaneously, more cumulus clouds started to gather and grow to the south forming a line to the west of the area.

The explosive development of these thunderstorm clouds produced severe weather in Southeastern New York and Northeastern New Jersey. Places such as Ramapo and Armonk in Rockland County, New York were hit hard by severe storms that produced hail and high winds. Passaic County was under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for a while. Storms also raced through parts of the five boroughs of New York City into Long Island. A bolt of lightning struck a building in Manhattan at the peak of the storms. At one point, the severe weather spawned over 1,000 lightning strikes in just 30 seconds.

Around 2:00 PM, a clap of thunder kicked off a severe thunderstorm in South Amboy. I happened to be in Waterfront Park at the time taking pictures. The storm ended up following me all the way down Route 35 and Route 36 South. The thunderstorm cell generated plenty of lightning strikes and that could be seen in places such as Keyport, Union Beach, Keansburg, Port Monmouth, and Middletown. The strikes helped knock out power to traffic lights in Aberdeen and the Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge. The rain also caused a good deal of ponding on the roads along Route 35 in those areas.

Vivid lightning could also be seen in Northern New Jersey near Little Falls along Route 46. Tens of thousands were left without power from this latest wave of storms. While the severe weather halted the four day heat wave, it didn’t drive out the humid air that has also plagued the Garden State. The front that brought the strong to severe thunderstorms on Wednesday stalled out just to the south of the Northwestern Middlesex County area. As a result, conditions remained unsettled with plenty of cloudiness and humidity. Dew points were in the upper 60s to low 70s on Thursday. Friday looks like more of the same, but with some much needed rainfall.