While this weekend might be a bit cool for the beach or the pool, our weather will remain quite pleasant.

Weekend Weather Headlines 20170825
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Normal high temperatures for late August are around 83 degrees across New Jersey. Believe it or not, we're not going to see that kind of seasonable warmth again until the middle of next week. Don't get me wrong though — our weather forecast for the weekend still looks pleasant, despite the September-ish temperatures.

One unpleasant surprise we need to talk about first, and that is the isolated shower activity pushing into New Jersey Friday morning. I mentioned in Thursday morning's weather blog post that this rain chance was so slight that I didn't even need to mention it on-air. And I think that's still the case. Even though eastern Pennsylvania has seen some good rainfall overnight, New Jersey's atmosphere is ridiculously dry. That will help these raindrops fizzle out completely by the time they reach the coast. Bottom line here — while a shower will be possible through 8 a.m. (especially in central and southern N.J.) most of the state will remain dry.

Some cloudiness associated with these showers should be expected Friday morning, but mostly sunny skies should resume by Friday afternoon. High temperatures will range from 75 to 80 degrees from the top to the bottom of the state. That's 3 to 6 degrees below normal for late August. Time to turn off the air conditioner and open the windows if you haven't already? (Although keep in mind, weed

Friday night will probably feature the coolest temperatures of this particular stretch, thanks to a combination of clear skies, light winds, and dry air. Lows will fall into the lower to mid 50s in NW NJ, mid to upper 50s in central and southern NJ, and potentially lower 60s in urban and coastal areas.

Saturday looks like a beautiful day. Expect mostly sunny skies and dry weather, with high temps in the mid to upper 70s.

We'll add a few more clouds to the forecast for Sunday and call it partly sunny. Highs holding steady in the mid to upper 70s.

By early next week, we'll see a shift toward an on-shore flow. In other words, the wind direction will flip to blow from the ocean, rather than from the land. This will cause a slightly uptick in humidity, a steady increase in cloud cover, and a decline in temperatures for at least Monday and Tuesday. High temperatures will be limited to the lower 70s along the coast and mid 70s further inland, under partly to mostly cloudy skies.

I'm still watching a batch of tropical-ish rain over Florida, which will skirt along the U.S. East Coast over the weekend and through early next week. While models still show the bulk of this system will stay off-shore, I'm concerned about the potential for some minor impacts (coastal showers and/or surge/swell). The dreaded "track wiggle" is also in the back of my mind — if this system hugs 50 to 100 miles closer to the coast, that could lead to some very wet weather by the end of next week.

Also in the tropics, Hurricane Harvey is about to smack southeastern Texas very hard. I fear we're going to see photos and video of catastrophic flooding and wind damage there in the coming days. For New Jersey, it will also be important to watch where Harvey's tropical moisture goes, after it's done meandering along the Gulf Coast. If it sweeps toward us, it could cause some torrential rain sometime over the Labor Day Weekend. That's a pretty long-range forecast — for now, we just have to sit back, watch, wait, and keep the people of Texas in our thoughts.

Dan Zarrow is Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and realtime weather updates.

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