Stay Inside New Jerseyans When You See This New Color on the Weather Map

Every summer we deal with heat and humidity. Outdoor activities might get canceled due to the unhealthy air quality.

If you've lived here long enough you know about the New Jersey humidity. And there's not even relief at the beaches, you know it's hot.

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There's a new color system that you should get familiar with before the heat of summer comes to the Jersey Shore.

We had a pretty good summer last year, I don't remember it being so, so hot. I do remember our weekends were rainy. Hopefully this summer is better and the weekends are beautiful.

I do remember several days of unhealthy air quality. It's tough to do anything outside on those days, other than maybe be swimming in a pool.

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The NOAA says that 2023 was Earth’s warmest year since global temperature records were established in 1850. We'll have to wait and see what this year and summer brings.

Over 700 Americans die from heat related illnesses every year, according to the United State Department of Health and Human Services.

There's a new experimental Heat Risk map for 2024. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and CDC teamed up for this brand new map.

Their main goal is to provide a forecast of how dangerous the heat could be and how they could impact activities for a 24-hour period.

The map officially debuted at the beginning of May and the forecast is shown using a color system similar to the one you know for air quality. The colors are green, yellow, orange, red and magenta.

Stay inside of you see this color on the Heat Risk map.

Magenta is the color that people really need to watch out for. Traditionally it would most likely be the red, but magenta means “extreme” which the NOAA describes as: "This level of rare and/or long-duration extreme heat with little to no overnight relief affects anyone without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration. Impacts likely in most health systems, heat-sensitive industries and infrastructure."

CLICK HERE to check out the new map. Hopefully we won't see magenta here in New Jersey. Always keep up to date with 92.7 WOBM Meteorologist Dan Zarrow's weather blog.