Dog Days Of Summer Are Here

Late Week Muggy Weather Typical For August In Jersey

About a month ago at this time, I had posted an article in the blog about how it was the heat, not the humidity that was dominating our weather.  It was true then that we were dealing with a dry heat.  However, that is not the case for the past 48 hours here in Northwestern Middlesex County.  As a matter of fact, the opposite has happened.

The latter portion of this week’s weather has been dominated by a truly tropical air mass.  It started out on Wednesday with torrential downpours from  strong and slow moving thunderstorms.  Places in the Garden State such as Keansburg, Morristown, and Bernardsville were hit hard.  Meanwhile, over in New York City, the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were all under a Flash Flood Warning in the afternoon.  Some locales in Queens received two inches of rainfall in a short amount of time.  

Flash Flood Warnings did eventually go into effect in Middlesex County, but here in South Plainfield, there was only 0.38 inches of rain when it was all said and done.  What those storms did though was make the air feel very tropical with increasing humidity.   The atmosphere over the Garden State became muggy like it usually does during these dog days of August.   On Thursday, the temperature creeped up to near 90 degrees while the dew point rose to 75 and the heat index topped out at 97.   Cumulus clouds built up in the afternoon, but they lacked the vertical development that the ones prior to Wednesday’s storms had.

Fast forward to Friday, and the weather outside has become downright oppressive.  As of 11:58 AM this morning, the temperature was at 85 degrees, but the humidity was soaring up to 80 percent for a dew point of 78 and a heat index of 96.  Rare to see humidity that high during this time of day.  The air outside is very thick and stifling while the skies are quite hazy.  The humidity is so high that the front porch door windows still have a bit of dew on them.   Heat Advisories and Air Quality alerts are in effect for parts of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southwestern New Jersey including the Philadelphia Metro Area.

Forecast for South Plainfield is calling for temperatures to get into the low 90s over the next several days.  High on Friday is expected to climb up to 94 with a chance for isolated thunderstorms during the afternoon.  The next chance at severe weather is on Sunday and Sunday night with a slight risk of severe thunderstorms.