Another Mid-Week Warm-Up Gives Way to Strong Cold Front
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ—Last weekend had great weather for all the games that were played. Even the Week 7 Showdown between Delaware Valley and Hillside over in Woodfield Stadium at Conant Street Park on Saturday was able to completely get in before the powerful cold front that ushered in a gust front with showers, storms and gusty winds.
The front didn’t do much in the way of damage at Greg’s Weather Center in South Plainfield, NJ, but it did cause some in nearby Bound Brook. Most importantly though, the gust front began to usher in much cooler air. The cooler air was then reinforced with disturbances that came through late Sunday afternoon and late Monday afternoon.
Those disturbances brought clouds and showers along with some gusty winds. One of those disturbances produced a rainbow on the eastern side of South Plainfield into nearby North Edison and other communities to the east prior to sunset on Sunday. Temperatures got as low as 42 degrees on Monday morning, and then 41 degrees on Tuesday morning.
Since then, temperatures have been moderating. On Wednesday, the morning low was 50 degrees before climbing to a high of 74 in the afternoon at GWC. Then, on Thursday morning, the temperatures only got down to 50 degrees again for an overnight low before rising up to 76 just before 1:00 PM in the afternoon. Quite a balmy day for this time of year. Skies are mostly clear, and it is a bit humid.
Currently, the temperature at GWC is 76 degrees, and the Accu-Weather forecast calls for the temperature to fall to about 72 degrees by game time at both David Brearley High School in Kenilworth, where the Bears will be playing a BCC Crossover against Dunellen, and Perth Amboy, where the Panthers freshmen team will be hosting Monroe in Albert G. Waters Stadium.
Changes are coming though. Over the past several days, a storm system has been traversing the country, and it has brought severe weather to portions of the Plains and Midwest. Today, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma indicated that there was a marginal risk for severe weather in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. There could be other areas of severe weather throughout the Ohio Valley.
The marginal severe weather risk is expected to stay south of the Garden State on Friday as the SPC indicates that Eastern North Carolina could be under the gun. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly, New Jersey indicates that skies will be mostly sunny on Friday with temperatures dropping to only a high of about 70 before becoming mostly cloudy on Friday night and cooling down to around 50.
Saturday appears to be the best chance of rain in terms of the Week 8 contests including the 2:00 PM BCC Division 5 Crossover between Ridge and Westfield, but the NWS in Mount Holly is currently forecasting only a 20 percent chance of showers with a high of 63 during the day before becoming mostly clear on Saturday night. Sunday looks to be a nicer day, but cooler with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the low 60s.
Accu-Weather is calling for a 12 percent chance of rain on Friday, a 41 percent chance on Saturday, and a 25 percent chance on Sunday. The Weather Channel is calling for a 6 percent chance of rain on Friday, an 18 percent risk on Saturday, and only a 7 percent possibility on Sunday. The NWS, Accu-Weather, and TWC all agree to some extent that the next chance for significant rain isn’t coming until Monday.
Things remain quiet in the Tropical Atlantic with no development expected over the next five days. As a matter of fact, the Atlantic Basin has not seen a storm since Victor emerged on September 29th. According to Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University, there have only been 4 times that there have been no named storms that formed from September 30th to October 26th since the most recent active cycle began in the tropics in 1995: 2002, 2006, 2007, and 2015.
Looking ahead to Halloween Weekend and the Week 9 Big Central Conference schedule, there has been some chatter about a significant storm developing late next week into the weekend, but that is over a week away, and there is still plenty of time to watch for it. Rule of thumb is to pay attention more to the model forecasts within 3 to 5 days of the storm.
