Wet, gloomy weather returns to NJ Wednesday afternoon

The Bottom Line

In my humble opinion, Tuesday was pretty close to a perfect weather day. Sunny and 70s, with a fresh breeze keeping the air moving around. Low humidity and dry weather.

After a gorgeous start to the week, all good things must come to an end. And unfortunately, that end comes Wednesday, as rain is poised to return to New Jersey through the afternoon and evening hours.

The steadiest rain will fall Wednesday night, with some embedded thunderstorm activity possible. Having said that, no widespread severe weather or flooding issues are expected. In fact, models have backed off the rainfall forecast, to about a half-inch total.

Thursday will be a downright gloomy day, with drizzle and clouds and temperatures that go nowhere. Friday will not be much better, only featuring slight improvements.

Skies will hopefully brighten up again just in time for the weekend.

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Wednesday

The day starts dry. But everyone in NJ will get wet eventually.

Wednesday morning looks fine, almost a continuation of Tuesday's lovely weather. Temperatures are in the 40s to start the day, definitely cool enough to wear a jacket. We should see dry weather and peeks of sun through lunchtime.

High temperatures are tricky Wednesday. I am now thinking most NJ locales will hit 60s before the rain arrives. But there is a lot of "wiggle room" in that figure — North Jersey will probably get stuck in the 50s, while 70 is a possibility to the southwest.

First raindrops will likely arrive between about 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., from west to east. Again, nothing heavy or overly noisy, just wet.

Pockets of rain will continue through Wednesday night. Tapping into some unstable air, rumbles of thunder will be possible through early Thursday morning.

Thursday

By daybreak Thursday, the rain will have largely dialed back. While additional rainfall will be minimal during the day Thursday, it will still be showery, drizzly, misty, and/or foggy through the morning and the afternoon.

Thursday will not be a pretty day. A backdoor cold front will put New Jersey under a prominent on-shore wind, draping a damp, chilly, marine-influenced air mass over the state. Amidst the gloom, temperatures will go nowhere, only reaching about 50 degrees (and probably sliding backward into the 40s through the afternoon).

Southwestern New Jersey may avoid the dreariest conditions, allowing temperatures to be slightly warmer there.

Friday

Friday still looks pretty blah, still socked in with cloud cover. There will be shower chances again — one around midday, and one at night. But at least it will not rain all day.

Temperatures on Friday will only improve slightly, to the mid 50s or so. The light breeze will continue to blow off the ocean.

Saturday

The weekend looks better. And definitely brighter.

I can not completely rule out a shower Saturday morning. Then we will see mostly cloudy skies. High temperatures should reach the lower to mid 60s. (Although I am fairly low confidence on that exact number at this point, with a cold front passage in motion.)

Sunday & Beyond

Sunday will be the brighter day of the weekend — let's call it partly sunny. And the day does look completely dry. We will be in a slightly cooler air mass, keeping highs to around 60 degrees. All around, looks good to me.

And the forecast largely holds steady into early next week, with a mixture of sun and clouds and temperatures in the seasonable 60s. There will be a few chances of showers, but no major storm systems are coming down the pike.

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