Western Jersey Weather

5 pm update:

Severe thunderstorm watch is in effect for western New Jersey until 11 pm tonight.

3 pm update

I would not be surprised to see a tornado watch issued for our area shortly. There is already on in central and western PA.

The Storm Prediction Center has just upgraded extreme western New Jersey and most of eastern PA with an enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms for this afternoon and early evening.

Be on the lookout for threatening skies later this afternoon. The more sunshine we get this morning and early afternoon, the stronger and more likely the storms will be.

Anyone that has been outside recently knows how humid the air-mass is. This results in the atmosphere holding a great amount of water that can result in downpours.

Furthermore our winds are veering today. At the surface the winds are coming out of the east southeast. As you move higher in the atmosphere the winds are coming out of the SW. This aids thunderstorms to have strong downdrafts and possibly rotation.

I expect a severe thunderstorm watch to be issued at some point today for this afternoon.

Right now the closest storms are in extreme NW PA but with this air mass they can pop up almost anywhere.