Enhanced Risk of Severe Weather for Southern Jersey; Marginal Risk for Rest of Garden State

After a wet month of May with 3.40 inches of rain for places like GWC in South Plainfield, there has been a bit of a lull at the start of June for much of the Garden State. We are already into the fourth day of the new month, and so far, only 0.03 inches of rain has been received by the GWC rain gauge here in Northern Middlesex County. However, all of that is expected to change when a storm system comes through on Sunday afternoon and evening.

As of this morning, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, portions of the Garden State will be under an enhanced risk for severe weather while others will be under a marginal risk. Usually, portions of New Jersey never get placed under an enhanced risk. It is usually a pretty big deal when the Garden State gets put under a slight risk. So the fact that the SPC is calling for an Enhanced Risk of severe storms for parts of Southern Jersey is a really big deal.

According to the Day Two Outlook from the SPC, the area under the enhanced risk of severe weather include: Eastern Virginia, Northeast North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, Southeastern Pennsylvania, and Southern New Jersey. Meanwhile, areas from Georgia into the Mid-Atlantic including the rest of Pennsylvania and New Jersey are under a slight risk. Conditions that could occur in all of these areas include: Damaging straight line winds, a few tornadoes, and severe hail. There also could be a great deal of rainfall.

The cause of all of this is a negatively titled shortwave that is currently moving through the Ohio Valley and helping to cause trouble in the Appalachians and Ohio River Region, which is presently under an enhanced risk by the SPC for Saturday. The shortwave will push east and help intensify a low pressure system coming out of Eastern Canada and provide a temperature and moisture contrast with the relatively warm and humid air in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic to make things just enough unstable for severe weather in parts of Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. Areas further north will get more isolated severe weather.

Looking at a recent forecast discussion and analysis from Garden State Weather, rainfall amounts could range from anywhere from a half inch or so in Atlantic City to close to over an inch and a half in Western Jersey near the Delaware River Valley. The rainfall could be a huge help though since despite the good amount of rain in May, there are many parts of the state that are still well below normal for this time of year. Middlesex County as a whole is averaging about 17.0 inches of rain so far this year, which is about an inch and a half below what it should be.

Other counties are much further below normal such as Monmouth, Somerset, Hunterdon, Warren, Morris, and Sussex, which all range from 2.5 to 4 inches below normal. Many of these places of key reservoirs such as Round Valley and Spruce Run in Hunterdon County or Manasquan Reservoir in Monmouth County. More urban counties such as Passaic, Bergen, Essex, Union and Hudson are also running several inches below normal for this time of year. All of this is in spite of the massive blizzard that took place toward the end of January.

So, try to enjoy the weekend, which could be rough at times, but on Sunday, keep an eye to the sky and watch for changing weather conditions, and stay tuned to local media and your NWS web site and social media pages for further developments with this potentially dangerous situation.