Temperatures Rise Into Low 80s As Weather Feels More Like Early August Than Early October

The calendar shows October, but the weather is thinking of another time. Instead of fall, mother nature is thinking back to those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. A warm front moved through earlier this week, and temperatures have been gradually on the rise ever since. On Friday, the high temperature at the GWC weather station in South Plainfield reached only 67 degrees. By this afternoon (Wednesday), the temperature climbed to 81 degrees. It is the first time that the mercury has reached 80 degrees since September 12th.

The diurnal range of temperature was almost 28 degrees today after a low of 54 this morning. The dew point peaked at 65 degrees earlier today. It is currently sitting at 64 degrees. The heat index, which climbed into the 80s for the first time in a few weeks, reached 84 degrees. The temperature reached 78 degrees for a high on Tuesday after a high of 72 on Monday. The forecast is calling for the weather to be pretty much the same on Thursday with a high of 80, and a high of 81 on Friday. Rain is expected at the end of the week though.

Looking around the region at this hour (4:00 PM EDT), Somerville is currently at 83 degrees. Down in Southern Jersey, Pomona, which is near Atlantic City, is at 85 degrees. Mount Holly in Burlington County is up to 82 degrees as is the state capital of Trenton. In Northern New Jersey, the temperature is up to 81 in Sussex, Caldwell is up to 82 while Newark is at 85 degrees and Teterboro has the highest temperature in the Garden State today at 86 degrees. In Monmouth County, Allaire, which is off I-195 near the Ocean County border, is up 82 degrees while Toms River in Ocean County is up to 84 degrees.

The cause for this warm-up has been an elongated frontal boundary that extends from Canadian Maritimes westward into the Rockies has been moving back and forth over the Central Jersey region. This meandering front will continue to move back and forth over the state for the rest of this week, and temperatures are expected to stay in the upper 70s to low 80s through the weekend, and into early next week when a more significant cold front is expected to try to push through. The mid-week warmup is giving people a feeling that they’re in the first week of August rather than the first week of October.

This latest development in the weather in Central Jersey follows the driest September in South Plainfield in three years with less than two inches of rain for the month, and only seven days of measurable rainfall. Over the last 26 days of September 2013, there was no measurable rain in 23 of those days. So far, there has been no rain in October either, and it is expected to remain dry until Friday. The arid weather has caused some of the fall colors to pop-up around town. Last year, there wasn’t much of a fall colors season due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy on many of the trees around the state. Hopefully, this fall will shape up to be much like that of two years ago.