Weather
By Dan Skeldon
It was “unofficial” as of Memorial Day weekend.
But Wednesday, June 21st, we’ll make it official. Summer begins in South Jersey, and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere for that matter, at 10:57 am on June 21, the summer solstice. And for the next 94 days, it’s all about fun in the South Jersey sun. As the sun rises on the favorite season of so many here at the shore, here are some summer snippets to put you in the sun-soaked, steamy spirit:
Longest day of the year: Yes, the first day of summer, the solstice, is the longest day of the year in terms of the amount of daylight. Specifically, we’ll have 14 hours, 56 minutes, and 48 seconds of daylight to enjoy on June 21. The next day, we’ll lose two seconds. Then another five seconds the following day, and nine more seconds the day after that. While imperceptible for a while, I always found it just a wee bit depressing that the days start growing shorter the second summer begins.
But the latest sunsets continue a bit longer: We all treasure the extra evening daylight and those latest sunsets of the year. And even though the days start growing shorter on June 22, the latest sunsets are with us for about a two week stretch, from June 22 – July 3. The sun will set on the western horizon at 8:28pm throughout that stretch, before ticking a few minutes back each week through mid-July. But don’t worry because you’ll have the sun setting after 8 p.m. all the way through August 9.
The smoke and haze are gone…at least for now: After that historic bout with choking Canadian wildfire smoke and hazardous air quality the first week of June, the smoke has cleared, at least as of this writing. A repeat episode, while highly unlikely, can’t entirely be ruled out as long as wildfires burn across North America, but that event was due to a perfect yellow storm of conditions not likely to be immediately replicated. Meanwhile, we haven’t had any early season bouts of the more traditional hazy skies that come with the high heat and humidity of summer, as the 90-degree heat has largely steered clear from South Jersey so far this spring, with none in the immediate future through the middle of June. In fact, it’s a slightly cooler and wetter than average pattern that looks to hold through the third week of June.
Meanwhile in the Pacific…: While it’s officially summer, something else recently became official too. We’re officially in an El Nino, a large-scale warming of the waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean between Asia and South America. In fact, the warming is quite pronounced, and we could be on the way to a “Super” El Nino, or in other words, an especially strong one. As my previous column on the Atlantic hurricane outlook discussed, an El Nino often leads to less hurricanes in the Atlantic, as it increases winds in the tropics and tropical systems have more difficulty organizing. Of course, it can also lead to warmer temperatures across an already warming planet. So hotter than average days may soon be on the horizon…
And then in the Atlantic…: While a strong El Nino is likely in the cards, so too is an incredibly warm Atlantic Ocean, also discussed in my hurricane outlook several columns back. Warmer than average ocean water, and in some cases much warmer than average water, covers much of the Atlantic basin, including the popular breeding grounds where tropical systems normally form. It could be an interesting battle this year as to what influences the hurricane season more, the strengthening El Nino or the warm bath water through much of the Atlantic? While the warm water doesn’t currently extend to the water right off South Jersey, you’d have to imagine that the right winds could send some of it our way at some point this summer. Visits by 80-degree ocean water to our shores is becoming more common in this changing climate as well. Keep in mind that late August and early September is usually when the warmest ocean water reaches our shores. But it can certainly occur earlier, with plenty of ups and downs along the way as the winds shift back and forth.
A quiet severe storm season so far: Given the lack of heat and humidity through much of the spring, not to mention the lack of cold fronts and storm systems that would spark the threat of severe thunderstorms, it’s been a fairly quiet start to the severe storm season here in New Jersey. Granted, there was a rare February tornado and we had that April 1 tornado outbreak too. But besides that, it’s been eerily quiet ever since. That’s not a bad thing of course, but we’re coming up on what is normally the peak of severe thunderstorm season, and we’ll see if the lack of storms persists or not as summer unfolds.
And if summer’s not your cup of tea…: Winter begins on Thursday, December 21 at 10:27 p.m. this year, just six short months away.
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.
