Temperature soars into the upper 70s across much of New Jersey and hits the low 80s in some towns, setting new records for early March. Watch video
If you had any doubts about how warm it was outside on Wednesday, all you had to do was take one look at the basketball courts, jogging paths and playgrounds in Roosevelt Park in Edison. They were as crowded on the ninth day of March as they normally would be in May or June.
"The weather is great," said Anthony Ng of Edison, who was wearing athletic shorts and tossed aside his shirt to shoot some hoops with his friends during the sun-splashed afternoon, when the temperature soared into the mid-70s. "It's beautiful for March. It feels like June."
Raf Pescasio, of East Brunswick, said he didn't expect it to be so warm on Wednesday, considering last year New Jersey was blanketed with 6 to 8 inches of snow in early March.
"I'm actually really surprised," he said. "But I'm not complaining. It's very nice out."
Pescasio spent part of the afternoon playing basketball in Roosevelt Park and walking his dog in the bright sunshine. The park was full of people dressed in summer-like attire: Shorts, T-shirts and tank tops. Some guys even went shirtless as they jogged around the park's pond or brushed up on their basketball skills.
March temps keep rising, along with fire risk
Heather Gumiran, a registered nurse who grew up in Edison but now resides in Baltimore, said the spring-like weather didn't surprise her too much because of the recent fluctuations in the weather pattern here in the Garden State.
"It was like 65 (degrees) like two weeks ago, and then it snowed, and now it's 75," she said while taking a break from walking her sister's dog Cooper in the Edison park. "It's like a box of chocolate."
Shattered records
The early March warmth was enough to break a slew of weather records, according to unofficial temperature readings reported by the National Weather Service and the New Jersey Weather and Climate Network at Rutgers University.
Newark set a new high temperature record Wednesday when the mercury rose to 81 degrees, crushing the city's old record for March 9, which was 74 degrees in 2000, the weather service said.
New Brunswick had an unofficial high of 82 degrees today, which would blow away its old record of 75, set in 1987.
Atlantic City tied its record high of 78 degrees on March 9, while New York City broke its daily record in Central Park and three cities in eastern Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia, Allentown and Reading -- each set new records for March 9.
New York City hit 77 degrees, 8 degrees higher than the old record for March 9. Philly's unofficial high on Wednesday was 82, Allentown was 80 and Reading was 80.
In addition to topping its daily record high on Wednesday, Philadelphia set a new record for the earliest date with a temperature reading above 80 degrees, said Lance Franck, a meteorologist at the weather service's regional office in Mount Holly. The old record was March 12, back in 1990, when the temperature reached 83.
Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LensReality. Find NJ.com on Facebook.