Sandy Hook Field Trip Weather

Although spring is our most popular season for
field trips, it can be the most unpredictable time for weather.

(Right) Radar reveals a "marine layer" extending halfway across the state. Although this is a common phenomenon in the summer and is responsible for cooling the coast, it normally is found along the shoreline and inland for only a half-mile or less. Some years in the spring (With stationary Lows to our South or Highs to our North) we get a consistent pattern like this that keeps the coastal counties cool and foggy in May and even June, while the inland counties are much warmer and sunny. Speaking of layers: Don't forget to bring layers of clothing on your field trip!

Below are radar images of the phenomenon in May of 2004 with arrows pointing to the front and Sandy Hook.

Spring: 

 

Summer:

(Left) This is more like it. A typical summer day and a sea breeze front, caused by unequal heating of the land and water.Land heats faster and air over it rises, drawing in the cool ocean air.

In the summer the sea breeze starts bringing in cool air from the ocean at about 11:00 AM. The wind at the shore (arrow) is from the Southeast.

1. Typical Summer weather patterns include thunderstorms in the afternoon. These appear earlier in the day in July because of the heat and later in the day in August because of cooler mid-day and morning temperatures.

2. Summer weather patterns: Radar shows the same storm moving just south of Sandy Hook.



3. Summer weather patterns: (Right) A Geostationary satellite image of the country on the same day shows humid weather and thunderstorm patterns in the East, drought over Texas, dry weather in the Pacific Northwest, and a monsoon effect over Arizona.

 
 
4. (Above) Note the typical summer, sea breeze front (Arrow) pushing cool air in from the Southeast, and a short distance inland along the coast. Sometimes light precipitation falls to the ground where the air masses meet. Note its disappearance (Right)

 
Watch the frontal line of showers moving in from the West break it down as the winds reverse and switch to the Northwest.

 

5. (Above) Ominous low and fast "scud" clouds preceding thunderstorms passing over the beach. On the right, the same cold front, common in the Fall, passes over Sandy Hook.

(Right) Look where the arrow points to see the fast moving line of scud clouds preceding the rain storm.

Fall:

Fall weather patterns generally  move fast and are easier to predict, making it the ideal field trip season. A cold front has moved off the East Coast, bringing breezy, dry and sunny October weather. (The whiter the pixels in the satellite image, the colder the temperature in the highest clouds. The darker areas are the warmest - Note the Gulf Stream off the Carolina coast.)
Also note the fog cloud over Pennsylvania and Ohio, an indication of calm air.


The dark Gulf Stream is obvious off of the Carolinas. It is enhanced in red on the image to the right. The Gulf Stream waters are 75-80 degrees and have a important effect on coastal climate.(The arrows point to Sandy Hook)
(Right) A close up infared image of the Gulf Stream off of Cape Hatteras shows the warm (Red) waters moving through cooler (Yellow) waters to the north. Clouds in the lower right appear white-to-blue because they are very cold. North Carolina land on the left side of the image is white-to- light blue because its temperatures are lower in the morning when the ground is cool.

Fishermen and surfers flock to Cape Hatteras because of the warmer waters.


Note the arrow pointing to New Jersey, which is about 36-hours away from the center of an approaching hurricane to the south.


Hurricane Bonnie is blue in this infrared satellite image and will brush the Carolinas but pass to the east of New Jersey (Find the arrow).

Winter:
 
Winter Nor'easters pound the coast, but often stir up some of the best beach combing finds of the year.


A cold front passes the coast on the afternoon of January 14, 2005 and temperatures at Sandy Hook passed from 62-to-30-degrees in a matter of hours. Winds abruptly changed from South to Northwest.
Check our field trip offerings for winter beach programs.