Precipitation departures over 60 days through Sept. 14, 2015 (Source: Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center)
If you love the outdoors, late summer weather is rarely this nice: sunny for days with highs in the mid-80s.
That's the forecast for Freehold through Saturday, and the weather is also supposed to be good through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Trouble is, there's little or no rain in the seven-day forecast, and that means New Jersey's two-month dry spell will continue.
The dry weather is a “two-edged sword,” said William J. Sciarappa, agricultural agent with Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Monmouth County.
NJ dry spell lingers despite rain
With their harvest coming up, dry weather enhances the sugar content of grapes, he said. It’s also good for pumpkins so they don’t become diseased and their handles remain dry, making them easy to handle.
Dry weather is also good for hay crops, such as alfalfa, so they’re easy to harvest and don’t rot, he said.
But tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn and other specialty vegetables all need 1 inch of rain per week, or farmers have to irrigate them, he said. His office has seen a couple of dried-up sweet corn fields that lack irrigation.
“It’s not necessarily even just the lack of water,” he said. “It’s been those high heat days for like a month of over 90, sometimes 95 degrees,” with winds that dry out the soil.
“By and large, we’re still struggling through, our (farmers) are,” he said. “It’s not extreme (like in California). It’s just fairly bad right now.”
Sciarappa said his office recently took about 50 soil samples and the ground is still hard and dry.
He noticed about a week ago that leaves had fallen off trees off Route 18.
'Ring of fire' may help douse NJ drought
“It looks like October,” he said. “It looks like it might be a month ahead of time. We’re having an early fall look, a lot of acorns all over the place and that typically indicates the oak tree thinks it’s under stress.”
He'll know better whether fall is arriving early in upcoming days.
Here are some facts and figures about the great weather and the dry spell:
1. High pressure will remain over the region through Thursday before sliding eastward Friday and Saturday. A cold front will cross the area Sunday, followed by high pressure building across the Northeast early next week, according to the weather service's Mount Holly Office.
2. Today's highs have hit 83 in Berkeley and Sea Girt, and 82 in Upper Freehold and Holmdel. Lows include 60 in Harvey Cedars, 57 in Seaside Heights and 55 in Oceanport, Point Pleasant and Sea Girt, according to the New Jersey Weather and Climate Network.
3. In Freehold, highs average 77.1 degrees on Sept. 15, based on 1981 to 2010 data, according to the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist. Highs average 77.4 degrees in Toms River.
4. Nearly nine-tenths of New Jersey was at least abnormally dry as of Sept. 8, according to last Thursday's U.S. Drought Monitor update. About 17 percent of the state was in a moderate drought, including part of northwestern Monmouth County.
5. In 60 days through Monday, Monmouth County averaged 4.7 inches of rain - 3.7 inches below average, according to the Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center. Ocean County averaged 4.9 inches, or 3.4 below the norm.
6. It's likely to be warm and and there's a good chance it will be dry from Sept. 21 through 29, according to the latest Climate Prediction Center outlooks.
7. Reservoir levels in the two-county area, however, were near-normal or normal for this time of year, according to a story I wrote last week.
