Weather
By Dan Skeldon
Welcome to summer, officially! It began just before midnight last Sunday, and will be with us for the next eighty-something days. It’s the favorite season for so many of us, although admittedly I’m a fall fanatic myself.
No matter your preference, we all learn early in life that there are of course only four seasons. And here in South Jersey, we’re fortunate to have each be quite distinct from the others. But as a meteorologist who has forecasted in South Jersey for the better part of two decades, I actually attest that there are quite a few more than four. It’s an unofficial list, but allow me to elaborate:
1) Summer season: Memorial Day to Labor Day by most definitions, a South Jersey summer coincides with the warmest weather and longest days of the year, not to mention the highest concentration of “shoobies” along the shore.
2) Hurricane season: Officially running from June 1st through November 30th, here in South Jersey, it’s more like August 15th to October 15th. Most years, that’s the meat of the season along our coast, and when we are most likely to be threatened by storms coming up the coast, or from remnants of storms that hit elsewhere.
3) Local’s Summer: Also known as second summer or the shoulder season, it roughly spans from Labor Day evening to Columbus Day. The tourists are largely gone, the ocean water is still warm, and the weather is still pleasant and seldom sticky. And with no traffic and no crowds, this is the favorite time of year for many year-round residents.
4) Fall season: My favorite time of the year, I define it to be the time of the year when the leaves are changing, when we start to look for frosts and freezes at night, and when neither heat nor air conditioning are needed that much. In South Jersey, this can be anywhere from late September through mid-November.
5) Will we have a white Christmas season? More traditionally known as early winter, this is the time of year when everyone wonders what type of winter we will have, and when the first snow will fall. And as the holidays approach, yes, many wonder if dreams for a white Christmas come true this year. This can alternatively be called “Where’s the snow season?”, which is immediately followed by…
6) Warmth for the holiday season: At least lately, the time around Christmas and New Year’s always seems to be mild, if not warm, and sometimes wet. It’s a late December into early January thaw of sorts, that is, if we see any early season cold before the holidays at all.
7) No really, where is the snow season?: And after the hustle and bustle of the holidays wraps up, curiosity in the often lack of cold and snow to this point usually peaks in early to mid-January. That leads many to wonder if we will have a winter at all, where all the snow is, and if climate change means no snow days or cold this year.
8) Finally, it’s winter season: Our South Jersey winters seem to come later over the last few decades, often waiting until sometime in January to become established, and frequently lingering longer than most of us would like, sometimes well into March. In fact, some of our snowiest months have been during the month of March over the last 15 years. That leads nicely into…
9) Where is spring season?: And after repeated March snowfalls, extended stretches of cold and cloudy weather, not to mention some biting winds or late season nor’easters, we start to curse ourselves for ever hoping for snow back in the first place. So dreams of snowflakes instead shift to hopes for blue skies and that big, bright orb called the sun that has seemingly disappeared from our skies.
10) Is this really the spring season?: By April into May, we’ve finally managed to procure some blue skies, and we’ve gotten rid of the below freezing temperatures. But with the ocean still cold and of course slower to warm up, we’re left wondering why the shore is often so chilly and/or foggy compared to areas farther inland. It’s the one time of the year when that ocean breeze can be a minus, keeping the islands 45° and fogged in while the Pinelands soak up 70-something-degree sunshine, just 10 miles away. While nice stretches of weather are so easy to get in the fall thanks to the warmer ocean, an extended stretch of nice weather in spring is often so difficult to come by.
11) Brush and forest fire season: This overlaps with the previous two seasons, the time after any snow melts and before trees and vegetation greens up each year. When the ground/brush is dry, the winds are strong, and the relative humidity is low, the fire danger is high. And the Pine Barrens have had some large and destructive fires in the past when conditions are just right. Then once things warm up and green up…
12) When will all this pollen be done season?: Then comes pollen season, when all cars, decks, windows, and any other flat outdoor surfaces are covered with a yellow or green veil. Allergy sufferers are at their most miserable, thanks to a seemingly infinite supply of tree pollen that can linger for weeks or months, depending on rainfall, or lack thereof.
And after that, we come full circle, back to the start of summer. Did I miss any?
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.
