Storms Bring Heatwave to Abrupt End - Barnegat Lighthouse

Storms Bring Heatwave to Abrupt End

Storms Bring Heatwave to Abrupt End - Shelf Cloud
Storms Bring Heatwave to Abrupt End - Leading Edge
Storms Bring Heatwave to Abrupt End - Ship Bottom

New Jersey’s first heatwave of 2026 was abruptly ended by severe storms on Wednesday.

Earliest Hot Spell Since 2017 Concludes After Four Days

SHIP BOTTOM, NJ – On Wednesday, the first heatwave of 2026 at Greg’s Weather Center in South Plainfield, NJ, concluded after four days of sweltering temperatures.  A cold front produced storms that brought the heatwave to an abrupt end at GWC as well as the rest of the state of New Jersey.  The earliest heatwave in the Garden State since 2017 brought record temperatures to numerous locations around the Garden State on Monday and Tuesday.

Temperatures at GWC reached 95 on Monday and 96 on Tuesday.  Those were the warmest temperatures in Northwestern Middlesex County for this time of year in at least four years.  The early heatwave has raised the total of 80-degree days to 13 and the number of 90-degree days to six in 2026.  Two of those 90-degree days were 95 degrees or higher.  The high temperature on Wednesday was 94.

DateHigh TemperatureLow TemperatureDiurnal Range
May 17, 202690°59°31°
May 18, 202695°62°33°
May 19, 202696°67°29°
May 20, 202694°63°31°
Table 1: Temperatures During Four-Day Heatwave at Greg’s Weather Center in South Plainfield, NJ

The severe weather was anticipated on Wednesday.  A cold front responsible for producing severe weather from the Great Plains to the interior Northeast earlier in the week was pushing further east towards the coast.  The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, placed the Mid-Atlantic under a slight risk for severe weather on Wednesday.  By the middle of the afternoon on Wednesday, a Severe Thunderstorm Watch was issued for the Mid-Atlantic from Southern Connecticut to Delaware.

Traveling to Long Beach Island on Wednesday, GWC arrived at Sunset Park in Harvey Cedars at 2:30 PM to see clouds beginning to develop, but encountered a strong sea breeze from the southeast.  The shearing winds squashed the further development of the clouds as they traveled across Barnegat Bay onto LBI and onward to the Atlantic Ocean.  Over the next four hours, conditions would change as the cold front moved in and storms pushed toward the coast.

Watch footage of the conditions at Barnegat Light during Wednesday’s severe weather.

Skies grew more overcast on Long Beach Island, especially to the north at Barnegat Light.  GWC headed north on Long Beach Boulevard at 6:40 PM.  We arrived just in time to see the emergence of a shelf cloud moving offshore from inland Ocean County.  Thunderstorms further north in places such as Toms River in Ocean County and Belmar in Monmouth County produced high winds.  A little after 7:00 PM, the shelf cloud closed in on Barnegat Light and brought wind gusts as high as 60 miles per hour.

The winds at Barnegat Light were so strong that they kicked up the sand around the historic Barnegat Lighthouse and produced enough force to make it difficult to open a car door.  In addition to the gusty winds, there were numerous lightning flashes and a few bolts.  Fortunately, there was not much in the way of rain at Barnegat Light, Harvey Cedars, or Ship Bottom.  Skies remained ominously dark through sunset on Wednesday.

Watch footage of the shelf cloud bringing high winds to Barnegat Light on Wednesday.

Returning to Northwestern Middlesex County, the severe weather brought a total of 0.43 of an inch of rain to Greg’s Weather Center on Wednesday.  The rainfall nearly doubled the total for the month of May 2026 to 0.97 of an inch.  It was the seventh day of measurable rainfall at GWC so far this month.  Before the arrival of Wednesday’s storms, the barometer had fallen from 29.96 to 29.86 inches of Hg.  Nearby in Union County and further north in New York City, the severe weather wreaked havoc.

In locations such as Clark and Plainfield in Union County, strong winds downed trees and branches.  Trees were down citywide in Plainfield, including one on Park Avenue near Fifth Street, another that crushed a councilman’s car in the City Hall Parking Lot, and a couple along Watchung Avenue.  Meanwhile, storms produced torrential rainfall of up to two inches in the Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City.  As a result, there was flash flooding on many city streets.  

Watch time-lapse footage of the approaching shelf cloud at Barnegat Light on Wednesday.

We have not seen the last of this frontal boundary responsible for Wednesday’s weather either.  The cold front that pushed through on Wednesday afternoon and evening is expected to stall.  As a result, weather conditions will remain unsettled across the Garden State for the next couple of days.  Then, the front is forecast to head back north as a warm front.  Waves of low pressure will ride along the frontal boundary and bring several rounds of rain during the course of the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend.  Temperatures will range from the mid-to-upper 50s to the mid-60s during the period.