Occasional showers and cooler temperatures today

After two days of widespread 80+ degree temperatures, we’ll temporarily cool off a bit today under clouds and showers.

Here are your weather headlines for Wednesday, May 6, 2015...

Unsettled & Cooler

A slow-moving front has admittedly made for a challenging weather forecast yesterday and today. That front has washed out quite a bit - in other words, there’s not a huge temperature difference from one side to the other. In addition, the precipitation band ahead of the front is falling apart.

So, while we will see some occasional spots of rain today, it will be of the light and hit-or-miss variety. The other big weather impacts for today will be abundant cloud cover and cooler temperatures. We’ll trade the 80s from the past two days for 60s all day today. (Some spots likely already hit their daily high temperatures early this morning, including 72° at Newark and Belmar.)

Back to the Warmth

Today’s cloudiness and cooler temperatures will only be temporary, as skies clear quickly tonight. Our forecast will return to mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures tomorrow, with comfortable highs in the mid to upper 70s. (As usual, a sea breeze will keep the immediate shore area cooler.) Friday’s highs look to bump up to about 80 degrees, and this weekend should be nice and warm with highs into the lower 80s for most of the state.

The only hitch to the nice weather between now and Mother’s Day is a strange little subtropical storm spinning toward the Carolinas. (Some media outlets have claimed this storm will become the first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, but I’m thinking that is unlikely.) That storm is expected to stay well south of New Jersey before kicking out to sea this weekend. While we won’t see any significant rain from this system, I suspect some clouds will creep into our skies on Friday and Saturday. And I can’t rule out a few little showers popping up in that time frame as well.

We Need Rain!

Hopefully we’ll see at least a little bit of rain across New Jersey today, because our next chance of significant precipitation won’t come until the very end of the upcoming weekend. We really need some rain for two reasons... First, it will mitigate the high pollen levels across the state, literally washing those nasty allergens out of the air. Second, we’ve been in a rainfall deficit for several weeks now. It would be great to stave off any drought concerns as soon as possible, especially as we approach the heat of summer.

Our next chance of precipitation late Sunday through Tuesday does look to be a good one. It looks like we’ll build some significant moisture into the atmosphere over New Jersey (i.e. humidity). That means, the potential will be there for periods of steady or heavy rain. At the moment, the heaviest rain looks to come late Monday into Tuesday, but it’s still a little too early to write that forecast firmly in ink. Stay tuned, and think wet thoughts.