Four days of quiet, fairly pleasant mid-March weather for NJ
I feel like New Jersey's weather has been pretty active since about July. Whether it was extreme heat, extreme cold, rain, thunderstorms, or snow — or all of the above — it's been non-stop busy in the weather center.
This morning, I finished writing the forecast in record time! A big dome of high pressure will provide a period of quiet, fairly pleasant weather through the first half of the week.
We're starting off Monday morning with some cloud cover, along with patchy fog and drizzle. But worry not, as Sunday's dreary, drizzly conditions will not repeat for Monday. Sunshine will win the sky by late morning, continuing through the afternoon. It will be breezy, with occasional gusts out of the west over 20 mph. But temperatures should end up on the mild side of normal, in the mid 50s for most of the state. (Probably only mid to upper 40s in far northern NJ.)
Skies will stay mostly clear and temperatures will be seasonably chilly for Monday night. Lows fall to around 30 degrees, cold enough for a light freeze.
The sun and breeze will return for Tuesday, although temperatures will be cooler than Monday. We'll flip to just-below-normal for mid-March, with highs limited to the mid 40s. Not too bad. Not even cold enough to calculate a wind chill. Practically jacket weather.
Another warming trend kicks in Wednesday, with high temps improving to the upper 40s to around 50. While the morning will feature mostly sunny skies, clouds will increase Wednesday afternoon. Still dry, still quiet.
Thursday will be mostly cloudy and dry during the day, with thermometers soaring into the mid to upper 50s. (60 is a possibility for interior South Jersey.)
Our next storm system is set to arrive Thursday evening, as scattered rain showers arrive in New Jersey. Friday looks quite wet, as periods of rain pass through New Jersey all day. The wet weather may not completely exit the Garden State until early Saturday morning.
You probably noticed I said rain there. Temperatures will make a run for 60s on Friday, so there's little to no concern for wintry weather.
Although our atmosphere cools for the St. Patrick's weekend, sunshine will make for decent weather. I'm seeing lower 50s on Saturday and cool mid 40s on Sunday>
Of course, with the first day of Spring right around the corner, that raises the question: Are we done with wintry weather for the season? Well, I'm not quite ready to bang the gavel on snow and ice, but we are getting close to that point. There are no significant snow storms on the horizon at this time. Once we get to the end of next week, ground and air temperatures naturally begin to rise and our sun angle gets higher too. Ol' Man Winter's days will be severely numbered by that point.