Tuesday will be another cloudy, dry day in New Jersey before some rain on Wednesday and possibly Thursday before Friday is expected to be glorious, forecasters predict.
The outlook for the coming weekend is less certain: The National Weather Service predicts that it will likely remain dry, but pointed to a 20 to 30 percent chance of rain for late Friday night into Saturday in the morning forecast discussion.
New Jersey could see up to three-quarters of an inch of rain by midweek, with northwestern areas receiving more than areas along Interstate 95 and the Jersey Shore, the weather service said.
Meteorologists are also closely monitoring potential Tropical Cyclone 9 raging in the Caribbean. The system is expected to strengthen into Hurricane Helene by Wednesday and become a major hurricane later this week as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico and then off the west coast of Florida.
UPDATE: Tropical Storm Helene is forming and is expected to develop into a major hurricane
Although AccuWeather.com did not specifically mention New Jersey, forecasters said the remnants of the hurricane could move northeast. On its current path, the storm is moving toward the Midwest after weakening to a tropical storm as it moved through Georgia.
“As a slow-moving storm moves from the Great Lakes into the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic later this week, moisture will be drawn northward and this will finally end the dry spell,” according to AccuWeather.com. “Currently, New York City could see at least 0.25 to 0.50 inches of rainfall during midweek, and even more precipitation could fall later in the week as tropical moisture is drawn northward from the Gulf of Mexico.”
Although a potential tropical cyclone is expected to develop into a major hurricane later this week, the northeastern United States is expected to be spared major impacts.National Hurricane Center.
While remnants of tropical moisture won’t reach New Jersey for several days, we’ll see some much-needed rain showers on Wednesday as a warm front from the Great Lakes region moves across our region. Highs will be between 77 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (25 to 27 degrees Celsius) before falling to 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius) at night.
On Tuesday it will be a bit cooler again, with temperatures only rising to 18 to 22 degrees Celsius.
There may be isolated showers on Thursday, but overall it will be a partly to mostly cloudy day with similar temperatures to Wednesday.
Dry September
Many parts of New Jersey have been bone dry all month, including the Newark, Trenton and Atlantic City areas, where less than a tenth of an inch of rain has been recorded since September 1.
Data from the National Weather Service shows that as of early Tuesday morning, the Newark area had received just 0.09 inches (2.34 mm), the Trenton area had received just 0.04 inches (1.10 mm) and the Atlantic City area had received just 0.07 inches (1.88 mm) of rainfall this month.
If this trend continues through the remaining week of September, it would be the driest or one of the driest Septembers on record in these areas of New Jersey and one of the driest in other parts of the state.
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Editor at NJ Advance Media Len Melisurgo contributed to this report.
Jeff Goldman can be reached at [email protected].
