If you were hoping for a mild summer, the forecast isn’t going to make you happy. AccuWeather is calling for a hotter-than-average summer across most of the country in 2026, and New Jersey is squarely in the zone. More 90-degree days. Higher humidity. Warmer nights. And an energy bill that could reflect all of it.
The short version: start planning now.
AccuWeather’s Long-Range Experts flag a “late surge of heat and higher humidity” for the Northeast specifically. That’s not just uncomfortable—it’s the kind of pattern that makes the heat feel worse than the thermometer says. When humidity climbs, AccuWeather’s RealFeel temperatures push well above the actual air temperature, and nights don’t cool down the way you need them to after a brutal day. New Jersey, New York City, and Philadelphia are all in the same prediction zone for 90-degree days landing at or above historical averages.
The bigger driver behind all of it is El Niño. The climate pattern is expected to develop and strengthen as summer progresses, which means its influence on the weather gets heavier as the season goes on—not lighter. That’s the part worth paying attention to. June might be manageable. July and August are where things could get difficult.
It’s not just heat, either. AccuWeather is predicting a volatile summer nationally, with severe thunderstorms and flooding also in the mix. The Northeast has seen what that combination looks like in recent years—heat waves punctuated by intense, fast-moving storms that dump rain faster than the ground can absorb it. That pattern looks likely to continue in 2026.
The energy piece is real. Widespread heat across the country drives up electricity demand, and New Jersey already has some of the highest utility rates in the region. A summer with more 90-degree days than average means air conditioning running harder and longer, which means bills going up. If you read our piece earlier this year on vampire devices and idle electricity costs, this forecast is a reason to revisit those habits before June.
A few things worth doing before the season starts: get your AC unit serviced if it hasn’t been recently, check whether your attic insulation is doing its job, and look at your utility’s budget billing option if you want to avoid a single massive bill in August. None of that is complicated. All of it matters more in a summer that’s being called hotter than normal before it’s even started.
Summer in New Jersey has always meant heat. This year the forecasters are just giving you more advance warning than usual.