Good morning folks! Indeed another week has passed and hope all of you are doing well. As I mentioned in my last weeks post on the first 2 weeks of May continuing its cool trend, old man winter pays the Northeast one last visit before shutting down for 6 months (the 2020/21 Winter could be “polar” opposite of this year, stay tuned). While Saturday will be shock to most of you (details below), temps do moderate into the upper 50s to 60s for Mother’s Day under partly cloudy skies. I’ll address when to expect normal temperatures in moment. But let’s briefly chat about my favorite topics: Freeze Watches, wind chills and snow squalls, IN MAY!
Today
Normal high/low on this date is 70°F/51°F in Newark (record high 92°F in 2000, record low 35°F 1947). Saturday’s record low of 33°F also in ’47 could be challenged. Tonight’s sunset is 8pm, finally. Today will be mostly cloudy with temps in the mid50s (high of the day was hit at midnight). Rain moves into NJ in the early afternoon and spreads across the tri-state area, becoming heavier into the evening hours, before mixing with sleet / snow and clearing out overnight. Possible flakes could be in the air (yes, I will be outside searching for snow, just like I did as a kid!). That’s when our polar airmass arrives.
Saturday
For Saturday morning, temps bottom out in the low to mid30s, upper 20s in the Pocs and Cats (a frigid 20s windchill)! A Freeze Warning is in effect for NNJ counties. While mostly sunny, the highs top out only in the mid to upper 40s. Plus, to make matters materially mind numbing, winds will be strong (isolated power outages possible) gusting between 30 to 40mph throughout the day and dropping wind chills into the 30s. No need to go out. Upper levels are very cold with this airmass, especially for this time of year. I’ll be tracking some snow squalls though out the day so stay tuned to my Twitter and FB pages for updates.
As far as any accumulations are concerned, elevation will be key. Slushy to a coating in northern most NJ burbs and will melt quickly. Lower Hudson Valley could see coating to an inch or 2 on non paved surfaces. Not a big deal, yet pretty cool given it’s May. Further north, the Catskills, western Mass, ADK, Green (Vermont) and White (New Hampshire) mountains, and the “Maine” event in the northern part of the state will have the best change for measurable totals. While uncommon for April and May snowfall in the Northeast, it has happened. See graphic below on latest May snowfalls. Reporter Len Melisurgo for NJ.com wrote an excellent article back in 2018 on NJ April/May snowfalls. He used one of my pics I took of my car covered from the 4/2/18 snowstorm. Check it out: https://www.nj.com/weather/2018/04/nj_weather_snow_storms_in_april_and_may.html
For the next week, Monday thru Wednesday continue to remain well below normal. However, good news (for a change). By the end of the week the mercury climbs into the mid70s, perhaps low 80s (possible upper 80s in DC)! That’s it for now. I’ll be back over the weekend with more details on our wild weather, mercury madness and tropical trouble. Time for some rest, although I’ll have plenty of atmospheric adrenaline for late night flakes, as weather never sleeps!