Heat wave is coming to NJ. It may feel like 100 degrees next week

If you can't stand the heat, stay out of next week.

The first heat wave of the summer is expected to bring temperatures that could feel, at their peak, as high as the low 100s.

The heat is expected to arrive Tuesday and sizzle us through Friday. Low temperatures at night are likely to be in the low to mid-70s.

No rain is expected until at least Friday, although that could change.

"We're expecting high temperatures each of those days, mid to upper 90s," said Dave Radell, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton N.Y. "With the heat and humidity, it might feel like the high 90s to the low 100s. Right now, it looks like the worst of those days is Thursday and Friday."

Been a while

A heat wave is defined — meteorologically — as three consecutive days of 90 degree heat or more.

We haven't had one since September of 2023. And we haven't had a June heat wave since 2021 — when the June 30 temperature got up to 98 degrees.

As a matter of fact, the unusually cool temperatures last summer had a lot to do with the wildfire smoke from Canada that turned our skies orange last June.

"The jet stream brought a lot of cooler air down from Canada and from the oceans to the east of us," said Bob Ziff, spokesman for The North Jersey Weather Observers. "That's why we had so much smoke."

This month's pattern is different, he said. "The pattern that's setting up now is winds coming from a hotter direction, from the Southwest," Ziff said.

What to do? Other than suffer?

There are all the obvious things. Hydrate. Stay air-conditioned if you can. Avoid direct sunlight, especially between noon and 6 p.m. If you're elderly, or otherwise vulnerable, stay indoors. If necessary, seek out a cooling center.

And take this grain of comfort:. However oppressive, there is nothing unusual, alarming, or climate-related about next week's heat wave, Radell said. It's just summer being summer.

"This is not that unusual an event," he said.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: A heat wave arrives Tuesday, with temperatures of 90 or more