N.J. weather: The summer forecast is out. Here’s what it means for the Garden State.

We still have a long spring season ahead of us, but forecasters from AccuWeather and the national Climate Prediction Center have already weighed in on their predictions for the summer months of 2022.

If they turn out to be correct, New Jersey will be facing a hotter than normal summer — but also a wetter than usual summer with a higher than usual risk of stormy weather.

The bottom line: There should be a good amount of nice beach days at the Jersey Shore, so keep the sun screen handy. But you’ll also need to keep an umbrella and some rain gear close by, and keep an eye on the sky.

AccuWeather’s summer forecast for 2022 says New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast can expect a stormy summer with more rain showers and thunderstorms than usual.

“We may have a lot of severe weather to deal with here in the Northeast coming early to mid part of the summer season,” AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok said. “All of the ingredients are there.”

For homeowners who care about maintaining their grass, there’s good news and bad news in the summer forecast. “We may not have to water the lawn too often,” Pastelok said. “The thing is: you’re going to have to probably cut the lawn often.”

The gray skies and wet weather, however, will be balanced out by hotter than normal temperatures, the AccuWeather forecasters say. Although we will likely see plenty of days with readings hitting 90 degrees or higher, the forecasters think the New Jersey region won’t have many extended heat waves this summer, because of the wet weather pattern.

Other summer predictions

The Climate Prediction Center, a national agency affiliated with the National Weather Service, also favors a New Jersey summer that will be hotter than normal and also wetter than normal — at least during the months of June and July.

In its current three-month weather outlook, which includes May, the prediction center says there’s a strong probability that New Jersey’s temperatures will be above average during those three months, despite the cool start during the first week of May.

The center also predicts a high probability of May, June and July being wetter than average in the Garden State.

Last year, New Jersey had its 6th warmest summer on record, with an average temperature of 74.5 degrees — the daily highs and daily lows averaged out across the state — and also its 11th wettest summer on record, with an average of 17.97 inches of rain, according to data from the office of the New Jersey State Climatologist at Rutgers University.

New Jersey normally averages 13.58 inches of rain during the summer months of June, July and August — generally about 4.5 inches per month. The state’s normal average summer temperature is 73.1 degrees, with average highs of 83.8 degrees and average lows of 63.3 degrees.

In May, New Jersey usually gets an average of 3.75 inches of rain and has an average overall temperature of 61.2 degrees, with an average high of 72 degrees and an average low of 50 degrees.

A quick reminder: For weather statistics, forecasters and climatologists consider May to be the final month of spring, with summer starting on June 1 and ending Aug. 31. On the astronomical calendar, summer starts on June 21 and ends Sept. 22 this year.

Current weather radar

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Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com.