Meteorologist Joe Martucci and NJ State Climatologist Dr. Dave Robinson shared the same August recap and wardrobe choice of a blue polo shirt. Turning to the weather, the two detail Hurricane Erin’s coastal devastation with record-high summer tides and erosion.
They noted cooler-than-average temperatures, a chilly month start and end, and severe drought conditions, with North Jersey under a drought for the first time in months. The Rutgers 2024 Climate Report highlights ongoing drought and future weather risks.
Recap the month of weather that was. It’s all Jersey, with two of Jersey’s best weather guys. New Jersey State Climatologist Dr. Dave Robinson as well as Meteorologist Joe Martucci, owner of Cup A Joe Weather and Drone take you through the temperatures, rain, snow, coastal flooding and much more every episode. New episodes come out around the beginning of every month.
If you’re a summer resident or visitor to the Jersey Shore, it’s possible you’ve never experienced tidal flooding like this in your lifetime.
Margate was the most significant location for flooding on the entire shore. A transformer fire, electrical fire, six vehicle rescues, evacuations out of Sofia’s and Tomatoes, and a gas leak occurred, according to the Margate Fire Department. Water rescues occurred on the Black and White Horse pikes between Atlantic City and the Mainland.
Looking at tide gauges for June, July and August, Hurricane Erin brought the highest storm surge on record to the following locations:
Absecon, Atlantic City (Inside Thorofare), Sea Isle City, Avalon, Stone Harbor, Cape May (bayside) according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
If you weren’t in these locations, then it was the highest summertime flooding since Tropical Storm Irene impacted north up the Jersey Shore in August 2011.
The National Weather Service classifies flooding into three categories: minor, moderate and major. This was at the very high end of moderate.
Moderate flood stage is when traveling around our coast is downright difficult. I was in Sea Bright, Monmouth County on Thursday night, reporting on the storm. Route 36, the main road in town, was washed out going south, causing us to exit the island north, near Sandy Hook instead. It was also bringing water into unraised homes and businesses.
While moderate floods happen during the year, it’s almost always during nor’easter season, October to April, when fewer of us are at the shore. If you are here, it’s likely you’re not going out as much.
Still, even this tide was unusually high, ranked among the top 10 highest tides of any month on record in Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties.
THURSDAY’S FORECAST | Cool. Comfy. Those are the two ways to describe the weather this week so far, and most of the next 7-days, too. One round of rain is in the forecast for Labor Day Weekend and it’s not even much. Let’s talk!
Follow my work: www.cupajoe.live Jolt your brand, advertise with me: joe@cupajoe.live
WEDNESDAY’S FORECAST | Just in time for Pumpkin Spiced Lattes to come out, our *driest* air of summer comes today, feeling more like Autumn than the waning days of August. Watch and tune in!
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It’s a story that is told often in Cape May County.
You’re out by the water and you see storm clouds to the west. Your weather app on your phone flashes in bright oranges and reds, showing the heavy rain. It’s moving toward Ocean City, or Reeds Beach or Cape May Point.
But as the minutes go by the storm never comes. The radar turns light green, or maybe blank as the rain disappears.
That’s the Cape May Bubble at work, and there’s hard, scientific evidence that it’s a real phenomenon in the area. Compared to the rest of the state, the temperatures, and the number of thunderstorms and snow storms, are simply different here.
Cape May County geography matters
Cape May County is on a peninsula, surrounded by water on all three sides (Delaware Bay to the west, Atlantic Ocean to the south and east). Yes, New Jersey is also technically a peninsula, but the vast bodies of water around our southernmost county drive much of the weather we see.
Water warms and cools more slowly here. For the county, this means that towns stay cooler than most of New Jersey during the spring and summer. The extra water acts like extra air conditioning. Meanwhile, during the fall and winter, the county is milder than the rest of the state. County business leaders know this and over the years built tourism marketing campaigns based on it.
“Fall for the Jersey Cape” is one such slogan used in years past, promoting beach days into October, and plenty of comfortable days to explore the rest of the Jersey Cape. The result helped put Cape May County in second out of New Jersey’s 21 counties for tourism spending from 2021 to 2024, with $8.1 billion spent in 2024, according to the Cape May County Tourism office.
Between October and March, Cape May’s average temperatures are about 1 degree higher than Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Data shows that Cape May air temperatures stay warmer through May, like the water on the peninsula’s three sides.
By June and July, temperatures in both places level out. In fact, Cape May has cooler high temperatures from around Memorial Day weekend until early August.
Cape May County has fewer thunderstorms
The Cape May Bubble phenomenon I hear about most often is fewer thunderstorms. Turns out, that’s true. Most of New Jersey experiences roughly six hours of heavy rain falling overhead between May and August — peak storm season.
The one exception? The Cape-May-to-Vineland corridor. Only four hours of that type of rain falls here, on average, according to research led by Frédéric Fabry, director of radar observation at McGill University in Canada.
Frequency of radar detecting rain heavy enough to be classified as a thunderstorm during the research period by Fabry et. al. Notice the lower percentages in far southeastern New Jersey than the rest of the state (Via Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society).
If storms pass west to east, as they typically do, the relatively cooler Delaware Bay during these months stabilizes the storms, weakening them to below the thunderstorm threshold used in the Fabry’s study. Not only are there fewer thunderstorms, but they occur later in the day, on average.
Cape May County, along with Atlantic and southern Ocean counties, has a preferred thunderstorm time of 6 to 8 p.m. The rest of the state is between 4 and 6 p.m.
Fabry and his team took all radar scans across the Lower 48 of the United States to detect how many precipitation (A), thunderstorm-heavy rain (B) and hail (C) occurred over any given location. Echoes refer to the intensity of the radar beam that bounces off the precipitation and returns to the radar site. In New Jersey, that is either the radar site at Fort Dix, NJ or Dover Air Force Base, DE. (Image via the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society)
Thunderstorms can happen any time of the day, but fewer and generally later thunderstorms lead to more time outside. That means a healthier South Jersey Shore economy.
There is no scientifically proven reason for this. However, conversations with Fabry and Dave Robinson, the New Jersey State climatologist, in years past suggest that the near daily seabreeze influences the later timing.
The shape of the coastline runs southwest to northeast from Cape May to Long Beach Island. It’s then positioned south to north from Island Beach State Park to Sandy Hook. Furthermore, Cape May County is just more southeast. Storms begin many times during the day on the east side of the Appalachian Mountains. By the time they get to Sea Isle City, it’s later than the time they got to Philadelphia.
Cape May County has less rain
The southern (or lower) part of Cape May County is also among the driest in the state. Here’s a look at the average annual precipitation for our major weather reporting stations.
Lower Township, Cape May County: 43.84 inches
Atlantic City, Atlantic County: 43.62 inches
Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic County: 45.96 inches
Long Branch, Monmouth County: 52.53 inches
Trenton, Mercer County: 45.63 inches
Newark, Essex County: 46.60 inches
Belvidere, Warren County: 48.21 inches
Average annual precipitation in New Jersey in the year 2000. While the annual precipitation is slightly different in 2025, Cape May County still remains the driest place in the state on any given year (Via Oregon State University).
The reason, in part, for the drier weather is the water being on three sides.
Seabreeze fronts are common here from March to August. Once the seabreeze front passes from the coastline, inland, the air is more stable. That means it’s less likely to rain.
Furthermore, Cape May County is the county farthest removed from the process known as upsloping, which brings rain to the foothills of mountains. In this case, that’s the Appalachian Mountains.
Cape May County has less snow
Cape May County is the state’s flattest and southernmost county. Therefore, having the least amount of snow just comes with the territory. The long-standing Cooperative Observer Station in Lower Township averages 14.8 inches of snow in a year.
From December to March, snow season, the water temperature in Cape May Harbor is between 39 and 45 degrees, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Nor’easters, and the northeast winds they bring, funnel this above-freezing ocean air into the county. How many times has Trenton or Hammonton been covered in 6 inches of snow, while Marmora or Ocean City barely has a flake? The relatively mild water is the reason.
Are there other bubbles in New Jersey?
Given the data, you can make the case that the Cape May Bubble is really an Atlantic City Bubble, a Somers Point Bubble and a Millville Bubble. This far southeastern corner of New Jersey experiences different weather than the rest of the state.
I had the opportunity to meet Fabry at the American Meteorological Society conference in Baltimore in January 2024. He still remembers when we first talked about the phenomenon in 2019. He was kind and laughed when I explained just how much people talk about the bubble down here.
The man who proved the Cape May Bubble is real, Frederic Fabry, along with myself at the 2024 American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD.
Given Quebec’s deep-rooted history with tourism in Cape May County, it might be time we welcome him for a visit. Expect the storms to stay away if he comes.
Joe Martucci, a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and Digital Meteorologist, is the President and Director of Meteorology for Cup A Joe Weather and Drone. You can connect with him at cupajoe.live/.
News 12 did an excellent job covering the dramatic rescue of 10 people as a sailboat sank off of Avalon on July 25. Tom Kronsowski had me on to discuss the water and weather conditions that led to the rescue.
Despite some stormy and cool weekends this summer, there’s one thing we can say about the Jersey Shore right now: “Come on in; the water’s warm!”
The ocean water has been above average for most of the summer so far. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 75-degree water temperatures were recorded off the Steel Pier in Atlantic City on July 5, 6, 8, 12-17, and 23-28. In other words, over half of the July days, the ocean water temperature was warm. That’s more like South Carolina than South Jersey.
It’s the complete opposite of last summer. June and July had zero days with a water temperature above 75 degrees. In fact, 11 July days were in the very chilly 50s, and 55 degrees was the 8 a.m. water temperature on July 18, 2024. Getting in the ocean was tough.
To explain why summer 2025 has been an absolute warm ocean lover’s delight, I’ll use another mantra: “Life’s at ease with an ocean breeze.”
Wind direction determines ocean water temperature
Ranking behind the strength of the warming sun and the currents, the direction of the wind plays the biggest role in water temperatures in New Jersey. In fact, it’s the main player for the day-to-day, or hour-to-hour variations.
Cooler ocean waters are caused by upwelling. Upwelling describes what happens when the typically warmer sea surface water moves away from the coast and out to sea. Colder water from the sea floor then rises to the top along the shoreline.
This is a critical part of our marine ecosystem. That cold water is nutrient-rich and keeps our living ocean alive.
Upwelling is caused by Ekman Spiraling, according to the American Meteorological Society’s glossary.
A look at how Ekman spiral works. Notice the lower image. The water will move to the right of the direction of the wind. In New Jersey, that means a south wind will push the warmer, near surface ocean water away.
I’ll save the meteorology for you, but for the Jersey Shore, and the Northern Hemisphere, upwelling occurs any time the coastline is to the left of the direction of the wind. In our case it means a wind from the southwest or south. The Jersey Shore is to the left of the air current. That causes Ekman Spiraling, which pushes that warm water away.
On the other hand, warmer water gets pushed onshore with onshore winds. A wind from the southeast, east or even northeast will blow warmer-than-usual water in from the Gulf Stream our way.
From the time climatological summer began on June 1, to July 28, winds were out of the favorable southeast, east and northeast direction 30% of the time at Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township, according to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet. Yes, the airport is inland, but the large-scale wind measurement known as synoptic wind direction, is usually the same between the airport and the coast itself.
During summer of 2024, winds blew from the southeast, east to northeast just 12% of the time. During the summer of 2025, it has been above the long-term average of roughly 20%.
Go up the coast and you have had the same results only more often. Readings at Monmouth County Executive Airport in Wall show wind direction out of the southeast, east or northeast a whopping 55% of the time through July 28, according to the Mesonet. Last summer it was about 30%.
Eighty-degree ocean water is possible come August
Offshore winds should continue to be a focal point of the August forecast, and with the climatological peak of our ocean waters coming at the end of the month, a few 80-degree ocean water temperatures are very possible.
While I’m not as keen on it as I was in our Halfway Through Summer Outlook column a few weeks ago, there is still a better-than-50% chance that the wind direction comes from the southeast, east or northeast more than average during August.
August 2025 computer model sea level pressure forecast. Northeast winds are expected more than usual in August, bringing in relatively cooler air (via www.tropicaltidbits.com)
We average at least one day with a water temperature at or above 80 degrees at the Atlantic City station in August. So, hitting 80 is not unusual. However, given the constant 70s we’ve had up and down the coast so far, more onshore winds would likely give us at least a few days in the tropical 80s.
Shore summer weekend weather report card update
The report card’s been holding its own over the month of July. However, summer 2025 will need to study hard, put in the work and give us beautiful, dry weekends for August in order to keep this summer out of last place.
I graded the July 25-27 weekend a ‘B.’ That brings the grade point average since Memorial Day Weekend to a 2.7 – right around a B-minus.
In the eight summers that I’ve graded the weekend weather, the lowest final grade point average was a 3.0 back in 2021.
Climatologically, our weather becomes less rainy in mid-August. So, there’s still time to earn a few ‘A’ grades and dig out of last place.
Joe Martucci, a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and Digital Meteorologist, is the President and Director of Meteorology for Cup A Joe Weather and Drone. You can connect with him at cupajoe.live/.
Climatological summer, which runs June through August, is a little more than half over and the data shows that the weather has had us all sweating more than usual at the Jersey Shore.
The dew point, which measures how much water vapor is in the air in degrees, was much higher than usual at Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township, and other places along the Jersey Shore, in June and July. In fact, the readings have been some of the highest on record.
Here’s how to think about the dew point in terms of how it feels during the summer.
40s = Dry 50s = Refreshing 60+ = A bit humid 65+ = Noticeable 70+ = Sticky 75+ = Oppressive
At ACY Airport, June had the seventh highest dew point on record going back to 1947, according to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet. The month averaged a dew point of 63.9 degrees – three degrees above the average. Through July 18, that spiked to 70.2 degrees month-to-date. It’s the second highest on record and 4 degrees above average. Only 1994 was higher.
Dew points during the months of June (left) and July (right) for Atlantic City International Airport, Atlantic County. Note the increase in dew points over the decades (via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet).
It’s even more extreme farther north on the Jersey Shore. Monmouth County Executive Airport in Wall had the highest June dew point on record at 64.6 degrees. From July 1 to 18, the 72.1-degree dew point came in as the third highest on record for the period. Monmouth records go back to 1955, but weren’t consistently reported until 1992.
It’s even more incredible that the dew point is this high considering that the first half of June was cooler than average and the dew point can never fall below the air temperature.
Dew points during the months of June (left) and July (right) for Monmouth Executive Airport in Wall, Monmouth County. Note the increase in dew points over the decades (via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet).
You can thank our changing climate and local weather conditions for the sweaty feeling in the air.
Why so humid? The weather side
In New Jersey, any wind from the southwest, south, southeast or east is going to bring more humidity than usual. The winds from the southwest and south pump in that juicy air from the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America). Meanwhile, winds from the southeast and east will blow in moister ocean air.
Climatological summer, from June 1 to July 18, had winds blow from these directions roughly 55% of the time at Atlantic City International Airport, the Mesonet reports. The long-term average for the entire climatological summer is 35%. The different lengths of time mean this isn’t a perfect comparison, but it’s valid enough for this purpose.
The average wind direction and speed (left) for Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic County, with the observed wind direction and speed for June 1 to July 18, 2025 (via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet)
Along the shore, the wind at Monmouth County Executive Airport came from the more humid directions about 45% of the time this year. Usually, it’s only about 40%. The big difference is that the main wind direction this year was from the east.
At ACY Airport, the wind mostly came from the south. This made the air feel extra moist, with the highest humidity in years.
Humidity is a measurement of how much water is in the air compared to the air’s temperature. At ACY Airport, the humidity hit 71.9% in June – the highest since 2018. In July it reached 76% through July 18, the highest since 2021.
However, summer humidity can be tricky to understand. The percentages in June and July are high, but in winter, humidity can be 90% or more for days. But it doesn’t feel as stickymbecause it depends on the air’s temperature. Warmer air can hold more water so summer feels much more humid, even if the percentage is lower than in winter.
That leads me to the next point about this sweaty, sultry stretch.
Why so humid? The climate change side
As our summers have become hotter in recent decades, the atmosphere’s capacity for holding more moisture in the air has increased, too. That’s meant more days where the dew point can be a sticky 70 degrees or an oppressive 75 degrees.
During July, dew points have increased 3.3 degrees per century at Atlantic City International Airport.
The most recent July with a dew point below the long-term average was 2014, and 2009 before that. In June, it’s a long-term increase of 2.2 degrees per century.
The data proves that it’s been muggier in recent decades. We can also take a look at the heat index, too. The heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body, according to the American Meteorological Society.
At ACY Airport and Monmouth County Executive Airport, the heat index – this is how hot it feels when you combine temperature and humidity – for June and July 2025 so far ranks between fifth and seventh place compared to past years. Almost all the years that felt hotter than this June and July happened after 2008, except for one June at Monmouth.
However, here’s something interesting: in some places, the air’s humidity has actually gone down over time.
At ACY Airport, humidity drops at a rate of 3.85% per century. In June 2025, the humidity there was only the 46th highest out of 78 years recorded by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet. For July so far, it’s ranked 26th. But at Monmouth County Airport, humidity has gone up instead.
Not only is the air getting warmer because of climate change, mostly caused by people, but the ocean water is getting warmer, too.
When the ocean gets hotter, more water evaporates into the air. This makes the air hold more moisture, which raises the dew point – that’s the temperature when the air gets so full of water it starts to form dew. It also leads to bigger, heavier rainstorms.
The sea surface temperature in the Gulf increased between 1.35 and 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit from 1970 to 2020, according to peer-review research published in the Journal of Climate in August 2022.
The Atlantic Ocean on the United States East Coast increased between 1.8 to 3.6 degrees during the same time period, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
New Jersey’s more muggy summers will continue
Given the decades-long trends of higher summer heat and higher summer water temperatures, expect more summers like the one we’ve had already in the decades to come. In fact, climate models project a 1.8 to 3.6 increase in dew points come 2050, compared to 2018, according to that year’s National Climate Assessment, which is mandated by Congress.
Whether the increase in dew points due to climate change is a bad thing or good thing is not for me to say. However, expect more sweaty summers like this in decades to come.
Well, that changed fast. June gloom went to summer sizzle. High temperatures were in the 60s as recently as June 16 inland, and June 17 at the shore. Less than a week later, inland areas sweltered in the heat and humidity. Inland highs were in the 90s, with the sultry weather peaking earlier this week.
In other words, the pattern shift from spring to summer is now done, like we talked about in last week’s column about the cool and wet weekends. While the official temperatures are not in at the time of this writing, it’s likely you have lived through your first heat wave of 2025 inland.
With the heat increasing, both in the short term and the long term, knowledge is key to staying prepared.
What is a heat wave?
A heat wave in New Jersey is defined as three or more days of high temperatures at or above 90 degrees.
Turns out, there is no official definition of a heat wave. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines it as “a period of abnormally hot weather generally lasting more than two days.”
The American Meteorological Society says “to be a heat wave, such a period should last at least one day, but…lasts from several days to several weeks.”
The idea of using 90 degrees stems from A.T. Burrows. In 1901, he said a heat wave was when there were three or more days of heat that were above 90 degrees.
While we use that definition in New Jersey now, that doesn’t make sense for the Deep South. Jackson, Miss. has an average high temperature in the 90s from June 11 to Sept. 8. While it’s hot, that’s part of their climate.
Moreover, that doesn’t work in Seattle, where they average 2.5 days in the 90s each year, according to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.
Heck, it doesn’t even really work in the beach towns here in New Jersey.
The Sen. Frank S. Farley State Marina in Atlantic City averages 4.4 days a year with a temperature of at least 90 degrees. Using the New Jersey heat wave definition, the last one for the city was July 2011.
Heat waves rarely happen at the Jersey Shore beach towns (via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet)
You can figure the same for all of the barrier island beach towns at the Jersey Shore (note that most Monmouth County beaches are not barrier islands and see highs of at least 90 degrees more often, but still not as often as inland towns).
In 2022, I asked those in the local weather news space to comment about what a heat wave is for their viewing area. Central California goes by three days of 100 or more heat. In Amarillo, Texas, it’s three days of 105 heat. In Austin, it’s a week at least in the 100s.
Has New Jersey seen more heat waves over time? To keep it simple, we’ll just use the three days over 90-degree threshold for both the beach towns and inland areas.
Plus, to keep the answer simple, yes there has been an increase in the number of heat waves over time. Here are the number of heat waves, per decade at Atlantic City International Airport per the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.
1940s: 11
1950s: 13
1960s: 17
1970s: 14
1980s: 24
1990s: 22
2000s: 28
2010s: 36
2020-2024: 20 (on pace for 40)
Most of that increase has been during July and August, our two hottest months of the year. Nowadays, you can expect about four heat waves a year.
Heat waves are more frequent inland, at Atlantic City International Airport (via the Iowa Environmental Mesonet)
Go to the coast and there’s also an increasing trend in Atlantic City. However, since there are so few of them, with the last being in 2011, it’s not as strong of an increase as inland areas. Plus, there’s no real change in what month they’re happening more often.
Remember, too, that the threshold is 90 degrees. A week with 90s, except one for one day where it’s 89, would count as two heat waves instead of one. Still, the data shows an overall increase in the number of 90-degree days throughout the region. That’s especially true for the airport, which is always warmer than the coast in the summer.
What’s causing the increase in heat waves?
Number of days at or above 90 degrees at the inland Atlantic City International Airport (left) and Atlantic City (right)
Human influence on Earth is mainly responsible for this increase in two different ways.
First, there’s been an increase in greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s. The more carbon dioxide, methane, etc. that is in the atmosphere, the greater the ability for the sun’s heating rays to hit the ground, reflect back into the sky, only to bounce back down again off the emissions.
Secondly, there is an increase in roads, roofs and parking lots. These dark surfaces absorb more heat than the green gas, trees or the white sand. So, when the sun is down at night, that stored-up heat releases itself into the atmosphere, keeping our air warm (weather stations take readings about 6 feet high).
Summer heat safety tips
Staying healthy during heat waves requires some changes in lifestyle. Staying in the air conditioning, if you have it, is your best defense against the scorching heat. During the summer, the state of New Jersey works with towns and counties to open cooling shelters by you.
In Atlantic County, the county libraries in Absecon, Egg Harbor Township, Mays Landing, Pleasantville and Somers Point are open for you. If you’re in Cape May County, the emergency management website provides a list of cooling shelters when needed.
Deciding to go to the beach or pool to cool off is a great idea. However, even going there can be hazardous on the hottest days. The salt water at the beach can dry you out, and you’re still feeling the humidity next to the ocean. Drink plenty of water.
If you’re working outside, you should have 8 ounces (a cup) of cool water every 20 minutes. Take frequent breaks, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when the sun is strongest. If you can do that in the shade, it’s even better.
Finally, know the symptoms of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Heat exhaustion brings thirstiness, heavy sweating, nausea and weakness.
You can combat this by moving to a cooler area, loosening clothing and sipping water. I had heat exhaustion in Italy in 2019. If you know Europe, you know air conditioning is optional, despite Italy being as hot as it is here. Going into a museum, I got nausea and sweated heavily. We took a car back to our hotel room where we put the air conditioning on as low as possible. I was done for the rest of the day, but much better by nightfall.
Heat stroke, meanwhile, is a medical emergency. Call 9-1-1, get into a cooler spot and get ice on you as soon as you can.
Heat is the biggest killer in the United States, unfortunately. It has been every year since 2016, according to NOAA. However, just a little extra attention to what you are doing outside during heat waves goes a long way.
Joe Martucci, a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and Digital Meteorologist, is the President and Director of Meteorology for Cup A Joe Weather and Drone. You can connect with him at cupajoe.live/.
It’s the annual tradition! Every weekend, from the unlocking of the beaches Memorial Day to the Labor Day that just passed us, we grade the weather at the shore.
The grading is subjective. However, after listening to you, I think it’s fair to say an ‘A’ means the weekend’s weather had:
1) A high temperature between 75 and 85 degrees.
2) No rain.
3) Anything from a partly sunny to sunny sky. We could all use a few clouds to break up the sun.
4) Low humidity.
5) A gentle breeze.
This day in Asbury Park is what a perfect A looks like (via Joe Martucci)
Since this is an average of all the days, a few hours of cloudy sky won’t ruin a perfect ‘A’.
At the same time, this is for the whole shore. A weekend where Brigantine sees pouring rain while Asbury Park is dry won’t mean an ‘F’ either.
Since this is summer, weekends start early. My report card includes Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Memorial Day and Labor Day are also included in those weekends, too. Fourth of July’s weekend is based on what day of the week it occurs.
Sunday or Monday – Counted in with the Friday before the date.
Tuesday or Wednesday – Counted as a standalone date
Thursday, Friday or Saturday – County in with the weekend or Sunday following.
