High Temps Still Fail to Reach 90 Degree Mark

Wednesday appeared to be the best chance this week for temperatures to soar to 90 degrees. However, despite the gradual increase in both heat and humidity over the first few days of this week, the mercury has still not been able to crack the 90 degree mark for the first time in the month of August. Tuesday’s high was 87 degrees while Wednesday’s high fell short at 88 degrees. Forecast high for Thursday is 87 degrees while Friday’s is expected to reach 86 degrees.

The humidity has been gradually on the rise. Following a low dew point of 51 last week, it has steadily risen into the 60s and even low 70s. The last two days, the dew point has peaked at 71 and 72 degrees respectively. As a result, the heat index on Tuesday and Wednesday has been able to creep up in the low 90s. Could this be summer’s last stand? Over the past few weeks since the big heat wave last month, the weather has been much more comfortable.

After another torrid July in South Plainfield with a heat wave that last seven days, and 11 days of 90 degree plus weather, August 2013 has been more seasonable with average to below average temperatures along with lower humidity. As of today, the average temperature during the month of August has been only 70.6 degrees, which makes it the coolest August in the past three years. The high temperature on Wednesday was the highest of the month so far. As a matter of fact, since the major heatwave broke with thunderstorms on July 20th, temperatures have failed to reach 90 or higher for 32 consecutive days.

The previous two Augusts had peak temperatures for the month of 92 and 95 here at GWC. So far, the summer of 2013 has been the coolest in the past three years. Meanwhile, in other parts of the Garden State, it was a bit milder with a high temperature of 89 on Tuesday while the high on Wednesday did top out at 90. High temperature in Newark is forecast to be 89 on Thursday before thunderstorms roll through. A bit further to the northeast in New York City, the high was 88 on Tuesday, and 90 on Wednesday. Thursday’s forecast is calling for a high of 87.

A cold front is scheduled to come through Thursday night into Friday morning, and bring the temperatures back down to where they had been the first several weeks of August. Thunderstorms are expected to develop during the afternoon on Thursday, and produce some rain. Moisture will be streaming up from the southwest ahead of the approaching front, and will bring some instability to help produce the storms, but wind shear will be limited, and thus the chance for severe weather will be small. There is actually just a 40 percent chance of storms on Thursday afternoon and evening. If there is rain, it will likely total anywhere from a quarter to a third of an inch.