Looking At Another East Coast Heatwave This Week

Good evening everyone. Sorry that I haven’t had any posts up here in the blog for about the past couple days, but I’ve had to work both Saturday and Sunday. I’m trying to just find a way to post something to the web site while all the action is occurring in the tropics. Right now though, I’m going to digress since the heat is returning to the Central Jersey area along with much of the East Coast, and the forces that are playing into it could be setting the stage for a visit from Hurricane Earl.

For the ninth time this month, and the 33rd time since May 7th, the mercury climbed into the 90s here in Northwest Middlesex County. The temperature on Sunday here in South Plainfield was actually the second warmest this month as it came in just under 93 degrees. The warmest temperature so for this August was on the 9th with it reaching 93.8 degrees. After a couple splendid days of late summer weather with comfortable temperatures, and low humidity, the heat made a return on Sunday, and will be staying for the rest of the week. The forecast is calling for temperatures to get into the low to mid 90s for the next four days. Friday provides a possible respite with temps getting into the high 80s with a chance for thunderstorms.

Looking around the Garden State, the temperature got up to just under 92 degrees in Somerville according to data from the National Weather Service. Over in Newark, the mercury climbed to 96 degrees while in Trenton it got as high as 97 degrees. Further south in Atlantic City, it was near 100 degrees with the thermometer getting up to 98. Down in Wildwood, there was a nice sea breeze that brought the temperature down to just 86.

Looking at the National Weather Map courtesy of the NWS, you can see a ridge of high pressure entrenched over the eastern third of the United States. This dome of high pressure will not do much over the next few days. If anything, it will just drift to the east, bringing more of a southerly flow around it. This southerly flow will bring with it the heat much like we saw today. The presence of no frontal boundaries or troughs may be a key factor in the future whereabouts of Hurricane Earl. The fifth named storm of the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season became the season’s third hurricane earlier on Sunday, and is currently threatening the Northern Leeward Islands with Category One strength winds. More on Earl in a bit.