Weather
By Dan Skeldon
And just like that, August is here. And Labor Day looms large, just one month away. It happens without fail every year. We shiver through a seemingly endless winter, wander through the sometimes damp and dreary spring at the shore, driven by the hope for a long, sunny, and warm summer. For many of us, the long never works out, even though summer is technically the longest of the four seasons in terms of length. Summer has 94 days, with spring right behind it at 93. Fall is 90 days long, and believe it or not, there are only 89 days of winter. Yet summer always seems to fly by the fastest, right?.
So if it can’t be as long as we’d like, at least Mother Nature could make good on our other wishes for warmth and sunshine. So has she so far in 2021? There’s no better time than the halfway point of the summer season to look at how we stack up so far.
Temperatures: There hasn’t been a whole lot out of the ordinary temperature-wise so far this season. June ran about a degree warmer than average, which isn’t too significant, while July was close to average. I always use the number of 90-degree days in any given year as a good measuring stick as to how hot a summer has been. And so far this season, the Atlantic City International Airport (ACY), where records are kept in South Jersey, we’ve seen 18 days above that 90-degree threshold. There were 2 in May, 6 in June, and 10 in July, with August and September still to come. In addition, we’ve sweated through 3 heat waves so far in 2021, two 3 day heat waves and one that lasted 4 consecutive days. Here too, there’s nothing too unusual. In a typical summer, we’ll see about 17-20 days at or above 90° in South Jersey, so if we keep up our current pace, this summer will likely run a little above that. That’s nothing compared to the blisteringly hot summer of 2011, when over 40-something days soared past the 90-degree mark.
Rainfall: In terms of rain and severe storms, this summer has been a little more noteworthy, especially during the month of July. After average rain throughout the month of June, July delivered nearly double the normal monthly rainfall to much of the area. That’s thanks to multiple rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms, several episodes of flash flooding, and of course Tropical Storm Elsa, which zipped up the coast early in the month. In true summer-time fashion, it certainly didn’t rain everywhere equally. But while parts of New England and the entire western United States are in a drought, an exceptional one out west, we’re certainly not wanting for water here at home.
Tornadoes: Perhaps more than anything else, this will be the summer of the tornado. There wasn’t just one, but two separate tornado outbreaks across central and southern New Jersey so far this summer. The first was due to the aforementioned Elsa in early July, which spawned one tornado in Woodbine in Cape May County and another in Little Egg Harbor in Ocean County. Then on the last Thursday in July, an unusually intense and widespread tornado outbreak for this part of the country led to at least 9 confirmed tornadoes across eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. While the tornadoes spared the South Jersey shore, areas farther north weren’t so lucky. Several tornadoes touched down in Mercer County around Trenton, and closer to the coast, several more tornadoes and a waterspout touched down in Ocean County from Waretown to Barnegat Light at the northern tip of Long Beach Island. Given that the entire state of New Jersey averages around two tornadoes in an entire year, to say this year has been unusually busy is an understatement. And of course, we still have most of a hurricane season to go yet as well.
Water temperatures: Our surf temperatures near the coast have had their ups and downs, as they do every summer since they are dependent on what the wind is doing. We haven’t hit 80-degree water so far this summer, which isn’t expected for any given season but is always a treat if we do. So far, the warmest surf temperatures occurred in mid-July around July 15th through the 18th, when the water was consistently between 75 and 78 degrees. A few bouts of upwelling have dramatically dropped it to around the low 60s for brief spells. Yet we’ve spent most of the summer near our 70-degree average.
Eye on the tropics: After a busy start with 5 named storms through early July, we’ve enjoyed a lull throughout the tropical Atlantic of late. But the end to the calm is imminent, as a busy six week stretch in the Atlantic Basin should begin by mid-month.
So that’s where we’ve been. Where are we going? Well, let’s hope summer is saving its best for last with nothing but warm and sunny days, warm yet refreshing ocean water, and a summer free of any other tornado to tropics concerns. Here’s hoping!
Meteorologist Dan Skeldon has a degree in meteorology from Cornell University. He has forecasted the weather in South Jersey for the last 18 years, first on the former television station NBC40 and then on Longport Media radio. Dan has earned the American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval for Broadcast Meteorologists, and now does television broadcasts on WFMZ-TV in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
