As high pressure and dry air take firm control of our weather this week, we'll enjoy comfortable temperatures and sunny skies across the Garden State.

Wow, what a boring forecast. No complaints though!

A cold front swept through New Jersey late Sunday night, along with a line of thunderstorms. Several weather stations in South Jersey reported between 1 and 2 inches of rain.

The rain is now gone, and skies will continue to clear Monday morning. The extent of the arriving area of high pressure system is quite impressive. The dryness of our new air mass is remarkable too, especially considering summertime is "supposed to be" hot and humid in New Jersey! The end result for this forecast will be a period of quiet, pleasant weather for the majority of the week.

Monday afternoon will be bright and sunny, with a stiff northwesterly breeze up to about 25 mph. Temperatures will be seasonably warm, mostly in the lower 80s. North Jersey may only top out in the upper 70s.

Dry air almost always leads to cool nights, as the absence of moisture in the atmosphere allows the air temperature to drop further than in humid air. (It all has to do with dew points and latent heat of water vapor, but that's a science lesson for another day!)

So there could be a little chill in the air Monday night through Tuesday morning. Low temperatures are forecast to dip into the upper 50s for most of the state. Far North Jersey may touch the lower 50s. Far South Jersey and urban areas may only fall into the lower 60s. But it'll still be cool, comfortable, and quite refreshing after so many warm, muggy nights.

In fact, most of New Jersey may experience the coolest night in over two months. The last time we fell into the 50s? June 18 at Newark and Trenton, and August 5 at Atlantic City.

Tuesday will once again feature sunny, blue skies as high temperatures climb into the lower 80s. I think the sea breeze will fire up on Tuesday thanks to abundant sunshine and lighter ambient winds. That will lead to Jersey Shore towns topping out in the 70s instead of the 80s. Still nice and warm.

Aside from a slight bump-up in temperatures on Wednesday, to the mid 80s, it will be a familiar weather forecast. Expect mostly sunny and comfortably warm conditions.

By Thursday, humidity will start to increase again, but it won't be oppressive by any means. It might get a little sticky Thursday afternoon, with high temperatures again in the mid 80s.

Our next chance for rain will come alongside another cold front on Friday. But models are only showing meager rainfall totals, with just scattered showers and thunderstorms. (In fact, the GFS model keeps South Jersey bone dry for the next week and a half.) Additionally, Friday will probably be hot and humid for a while, with some locations reaching the lower 90s before the cooling effect of the cold front takes over.

The early look at the weekend is good: warm and dry.

Dan Zarrow is Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and realtime weather updates.

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