Summer is coming … as soon as this weekend, meteorologists say.
Thursday’s rainfall was set to give way to a sunny, balmy Friday before temperatures climb throughout the weekend, the National Weather Service said. They will reach the 70s and 80s, nudging the 90s by Monday in parts of the tristate area, meteorologists said Thursday. That’s in sharp contrast to the highs in the 50s and 60s that characterized the first half of May. Water temperatures are still in the 50s, the NWS cautioned, even though the air is warm.
“There are cold water safety concerns this weekend as water temperatures remain in the lower 50s,” the NWS said. “The cold water temperatures can quickly cause hypothermia and physical incapacitation to anyone suddenly immersed in the water. Anyone going out on small boats, canoes, or kayaks should plan accordingly and use extreme caution to avoid this threat.”
Landlubbers will bask in New York City temps that could hit 84° on Sunday, 89° on Tuesday, and 84° again on Wednesday, AccuWeather meteorologists said in an emailed statement. Philadelphia will hit 90° as soon as Monday and rise to 93° on Tuesday before dropping to a more manageable 88° on Wednesday. Washington D.C. is slated to start the week at 95°, rising to 97° before dropping to 88° on Wednesday, though humidity will make it feel like 99° and 100° those days.
People enjoy the weather in Prospect Park on April 15, 2026 in the Prospect Park South neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“There has been very little humidity during the few warm spells in the Northeast so far this spring,” said AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin, adding that it will make the higher humidity “quite noticeable.”
This could come as something of a shock to people who have been shivering under sweaters and blankets during an unusually chilly spring.
“It’s going to be a drier type of hot,” NWS meteorologist Jay Engle told the Daily News in a phone interview. “It’s not going to be that dog days of summer feel we get in August.”
Ocean breezes will cool the coastlines, but “anywhere removed from the coast,” such as inland suburban areas, will feel the brunt of the heat, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Bob Larson told The News by phone.
Such temperatures are not record-breaking, given that some of the highest-ever Central Park readings date as far back as 1900, according to NWS climate records.
The higher-than-normal temperatures will not last, Larson noted. They will give way to a more springlike feel at the end of next week.
Both Larson and Engle underscored the NWS’s water warnings.
“If you take a kayak out or a boat or something and you don’t have special thermal equipment and you fall into the water, you could get hypothermia,” Engle told The News. “If you go overboard or something, you could go into shock pretty quickly.”
In July and August the water is about 70 degrees because it has been heating up all summer. So it’s easy to get fooled, Larson noted.
“It may feel as if it’s July, but as soon as you encounter that water, your body will tell you otherwise,” he said.