Hudson Valley Braces for Wild Weather Rollercoaster This Week

The Hudson Valley is in danger of getting weather whiplash this week.

A wild weather rollercoaster is about to take the region on a crazy ride over the next few days, so get prepared.

Weather Rollercoaster Taking Off

After a stretch of cooler, seasonable weather with highs in the 60s over the weekend, temperatures are about to surge. By Tuesday, much of the Hudson Valley is expected to climb above 80 degrees. While it won't be a record for May 5 (that was set in 1930 when we reached 94), it's going to get very hot.

The warmth is great for those who've been waiting to break out the shorts, but you're not going to want to pack away the long pants and coats just yet.

Wild Weather Ride Takes a Turn Later this Week

As quickly as that warmth arrives, it will fade away. Rain moves in midweek, and temperatures fall back into the 60s and even upper 50s by late week, with overnight lows dipping into the 40s.

These swings are more than an annoyance. The unusual weather pattern has already done real damage.

Over the past month, the Hudson Valley has gone through multiple rounds of warm-ups followed by sudden freezes. And that’s already taken a serious toll on local farms. After an unseasonably warm few days that topped 70 degrees in early April, temperatures quickly dropped into the 20s.

Because of the early warmth, trees had already started to bloom. Crops of peaches, apples and even grapes have been devastated when the early buds were killed by the frost.

Farmers across the region even tried extreme measures like lighting fires and using helicopters to push warm air over crops, but in many cases, it wasn’t enough.

Will Normal Weather Return to the Hudson Valley?

Looking ahead, temperatures later in May are expected to level off closer to normal, with highs generally settling into the upper 60s and 70s instead of bouncing all over the place.

But as we learned, things can change quickly. You may want to wait a few weeks before completely storing those hats and gloves away for the summer.