Good evening everyone. I took a stroll late this afternoon after taking some certification tests on my computer earlier today, and it was cloudy and breezy, but no rain. There had actually been some brief bouts of sunshine, but the clouds ruled the day. In the morning, there were some rumbles of thunder along with some rain. According to the weather data for the month of April on the GWC web site, approximately 0.13 inches of rainfall fell, which represented the first significant rain in almost two weeks here in South Plainfield.

As stated on Friday evening, the weather is beginning to change. After having some 13 days without any measurable rainfall, and temperatures in the mid to upper 70s for about half of that good weather span, the next five days or so are forecasted to be rather inclement. The first salvo occurred on Saturday morning with the showers and rumbles of thunder mentioned earlier. It is expected to continue this evening as a frontal system is heading this way. Embedded within this system is a long line of potent thunderstorms stretching from Syracuse in Upstate New York all the way through Central Pennsylvania. This line is also quite wide. As of the latest forecast that I saw on ABC 7 Eyewitness News (WABC 7 New York), this line of storms was about five hours away from the Central Jersey area.

With the sun going down, these storms are expected to weaken, and even slow down in forward momentum. So by the time this bad weather reaches Northwestern Middlesex County as well as the rest of the Tri-State area, the storms should be just mere showers with perhaps some rumbles of thunder, and it should begin around midnight. Following the storms on radar, one can see that the severe weather appears to be already easing a bit. The colors on the radar, which had more red earlier, it showing more yellow and green, which is an indication that the coldest cloud tops, a characteristic of severe weather, are warming. According to the latest news report from TWC, some of these storms could bring hail and gusty winds in the Mid-Atlantic. However, the best chance for severe weather in Central Jersey is expected to be on Monday when an even stronger storm system is expected to move in with heavy rain and thunderstorms accompanying it.