Overview
Following a hot and dry summer, the questions of the day in September were when the temperature would begin to cool and would more abundant rainfall arrive. Signs of a rainfall resurgence were mixed, with drought conditions diminishing in spots but worsening in others. The temperature answer came in almost a flash on the 22nd (the first day of astronomical fall!) when a powerful cold front sent the thermometer quickly downward with an early-fall-like pattern arriving and remaining through month’s end.
Much like this past July, August was a hotter and drier month than normal. Despite a June with rather close-to-normal numbers, the two most recent months brought the summer temperature and precipitation to top-10 levels for hot and dry conditions. More on summer ’22 later in this report, but first to discuss is a record hot and quite dry August.
When it comes to recent hot Julys in New Jersey, the beat goes on. This year the heat was joined by quite limited precipitation, something not often seen in recent years. The statewide average temperature of 78.1° was 2.7° above the 1991–2020 normal, ranking 6th warmest since records commenced in 1895. Eight of the ten warmest Julys have occurred since 2010, leaving only 1955 and 1999 as top-ten outliers (Table 1). The statewide average maximum was 88.6° (+2.9°, 6th warmest) and the minimum 67.5° (+2.4°, 4th warmest).
As reported multiple times during the first half of 2022, the day-to-day weather and overall climate of the Garden State have varied frequently, exhibiting lots of variability and never “locking” into a given pattern for an extended period of several weeks or longer. Such was the case this June, making it difficult to define any conditions that dominated. June was somewhat drier than average, but eight events brought over an inch of rain somewhere within the state. It was also dry enough at one point for a wildfire to scorch over 13,000 acres of the Pine Barrens.
Many across NJ wondered if the incessant back and forth of weather conditions from early spring into May would ever cease and the more consistent warmth of late spring would arrive and persist. It took time this year, with a cool, damp start to May that included a nine-day interval of almost continuous onshore easterly flow. Come mid-month the seasonal transition was finally complete, and daytime highs mostly remained above 70° away from the coast and higher elevations. This included two episodes where temperatures exceeded 90°.
As has been the case for the past several months, weather patterns have been reluctant to persist for more than several days to about a week. While climatologically rather common as winter transitions to summer, this season has seemingly been consistently inconsistent beyond the norm. April saw temperatures reach well into the 80°s on several days, followed a short time later by a hard freeze in most inland locations. Rainfall was above normal, more than twice so in the northwest, which is a reversal of the general pattern since late fall.
When it comes to shedding the winter coat and thinking of warm weather to come, March is known to have its early spring teases. Then, along comes some late winter cold to remind us winter is not quite ready to disappear. This spring foolery was on exceptional display this month. High temperatures jumped into the 70°s on the 6th and 7th, then back to the cold until the 70° mark was again eclipsed during four of the five days from the 15th–19th.
The second month of 2022 and third month of winter continued a theme since December. Whether you call it a see saw, swing, or merry-go-round, it fits the theme of playground equipment as it never seemed any one particular variety of weather became established for all that long. More will be said about winter at the end of this report, but when it came to February, the end result was a somewhat warmer-than-normal month with about average precipitation and a dearth of snowfall.