Chilly Nights Ahead for Next Several Days Following Stormy Week Nine
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ—Playoff season is upon us here in Big Central Country! Election Day has passed and we will be turning back the clocks this weekend. Thanksgiving is several weeks away, and yes, Christmas is less than two months away. Days are getting shorter, and there will be even less sunlight starting on Sunday.
Temperatures are showing signs of the changing daylight, and seasons. Overnight at Greg’s Weather Center, the thermometer dropped to its lowest morning low of the season to date. It was exactly 32 degrees, or more commonly known as the freezing point. Some areas did have freeze watches and warnings yesterday.
The chilly nighttime temperatures come on the heels of a stormy end to the regular season. Last week, there were two major storms that moved through the area including a very powerful storm on Friday that brought the elements into many of the Week 9 games including the Middlesex County showdown between Old Bridge and Sayreville at DeMarco Stadium on Lombardi Field.
The windswept rain was quite a site as Big Central Gridiron set up shop at DeMarco Stadium. Rain was coming down in sheets and the winds were gusting and howling. The maelstrom was short lived through. Rain and win tapered off by the early morning hours on Saturday, and by the time BCG headed over to Linden, and then Roselle Park for Saturday morning games, the sun was beginning to re-emerge from the clouds.
Conditions remained somewhat unstable throughout the day though on Saturday as an afternoon shower popped up at Hub Stine Field in Plainfield, where the Cardinals made several big plays on defense to pull away from Perth Amboy. The temperatures remained up in the upper 50s to low 60s, but over the last couple days, conditions have become quite chilly in the evening.
Around 11:00 PM on Tuesday night, the mercury was down into the low to mid 40s around the region. At Greg’s Weather Center in South Plainfield, the temperature was down to 41 degrees at 10:45 PM. Temperatures continued to gradually fall during the night as radiational cooling conditions prevailed. What is radiational cooling you ask?
Radiational cooling is a phenomenon in weather where there is a great deal of infrared energy that builds up during the course of daytime heading that goes back up into the atmosphere at night when there are clear skies and winds are either calm or very light. With calm or light winds, there is no mixing the air at different levels of the atmosphere, which helps the temperature to get colder.
With temperatures bottoming out around the freezing mark overnight in the Central Jersey area, many places had to contend with Frost Advisories, or even Freeze Watches or Warnings. Expect that to continue over the next several days. There is another possibility of frost tonight in South Plainfield as the nighttime low is forecast to be around 32 again although there could be more clouds about, which may prevent that infrared energy from escaping.
According to the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly, Wednesday’s high is only expected to reach into the low 50s, so temperatures will probably be in the upper 40s around game time when Big Central Gridiron travels up to Warren to see Watchung Hills in action versus Morristown in an NJSIAA Regional Crossover. Then, for Thursday afternoon’s game between South River and Bordentown, the temperature will be around 50 under partly sunny skies.
By the time, Big Central Gridiron travels up to Lou Bartha Stadium in Iselin for J.F. Kennedy’s game versus Paterson Kennedy, the temperature will be around the afternoon high of 52 degrees. So, when the game winds down, and BCG travels up to Roselle for the 6:00 PM game against Keansburg, the temperature should be dropping into the upper 40s with decreasing clouds.
For Friday’s playoff game at Noonan Field between top seeded Hillsborough and 8th seeded New Brunswick in the Central Jersey Group 5 State Tournament, which is slated to start at 7:00 PM, skies will be mostly clear and after a forecast high of 53 on Friday, the temperatures should be in the mid to upper 40s on the way to a Saturday morning low of 31 according to NWS Mount Holly.
On Saturday, when 4th seeded Hillside takes the field at Woodfield Stadium in Conant Street Park to play 5th seeded Overbrook from South Jersey in the opening round of the Central Jersey Group 2 State Tournament scheduled to start at 1:00 PM, temperatures should be in the low 50s under sunny skies. High temperature should reach 55 on Saturday afternoon according to the NWS Office in New York City.
So, while there won’t be any storms over the next several days, you better dress warmly since temperatures will be rather chilly, especially as many of these games progress further into the evening.
