NJ weather: The heat wave is making these Jersey Shore business owners miserable

When the air conditioning went out, Brendan Smith promised his employees at Julio's Pizza Co. in Atlantic Highlands that if they would stop complaining about just how hot it was, he would buy them all milkshakes from Nicholas Creamery across the street when their shift was over.

The employees quietly went back to work. Smith made good on his promise. But the stifling heat returned the next day. And the next. And the next.

"I was driving down the street today and I saw some guy driving an Amazon van, and I was like, 'I wish I was doing that,'" Smith said one day last week, standing in the kitchen at the pizzeria's Keansburg store, where the thermostat read 91 degrees.

The weather this summer — with the heat index climbing above 100 degrees inland, while ocean temperatures remain unseasonably chilly — is taking a toll on the Jersey Shore's economy.

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In Red Bank, foot traffic at the Broadwalk pedestrian mall is down. In Point Pleasant Beach, a south wind has kept the water cold and made for poor fishing conditions. In Highlands, a new restaurant canceled reservations for more than 200 customers on a Saturday night when a storm with 60 mph winds knocked out power.

While climate change has set off alarm bells around rising sea levels, experts say this summer is a sign that it is creating short-term disruptions as well.

"You're seeing these weather events take on new life," said Parul Jain, a finance and economics professor at Rutgers Business School in Newark and New Brunswick. "And we're observing some of the implications."

The Monmouth and Ocean County tourism industry was hoping to improve on last year's season, when visitors spent $8.6 billion. But half-way through the summer tourism season, the weather has forced businesses to take precautions, even it if means closing early.

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Erin Buterick, owner of The Union Market in Tuckerton, said her restaurant's air conditioning units have always had a hard time keeping up with the heat, but this summer has been particularly grueling. She installed air curtains at the doorways, portable air conditioning units and fans. She handed out cooling towels and ice pops for the staff.

But it didn't work. After the temperature in the dining room hit 89 degrees last Tuesday, Buterick decided to close on Wednesday so technicians could work on the air conditioning unit. The restaurant reopened.

"It's detrimental to a small business such as mine to have to close during the busiest time of the year," Buterick said. "I hate to have to close since it can be quite stressful on the business finances, but I also have an obligation to protect my staff."

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The rising temperatures are part of a trend. Last year, New Jersey experienced the third warmest year on record, and this year may prove equally as warm; June was the second hottest on record for New Jersey, out of 130 years of climate data said David Robinson, the state climatologist.

Adding to the uncomfortable mix: Not only is New Jersey heating up, but also the Atlantic Ocean bordering it is one of the most rapidly warming regions on the planet as well, said Lori Garzio, a researcher who studies climate change in marine environments at the Rutgers’ Center for Ocean Observing Leadership.

That warm ocean’s evaporation is putting more humidity into the air around New Jersey, which, combined with higher summer temperatures, is raising the overall heat index across the state, Robinson said.

Temperatures in the mid-90s with high humidity can place the heat index well over 100 degrees, he said.

“The die is cast that this is going to come in as a warm summer,” he said. “There's nothing to suggest we're suddenly going to cool off and go below normal long enough to counter the excessive warmth we've seen in the first half of the summer.”

The Shore this summer has gotten the worst of both worlds.

Inland, it's too hot. In Red Bank, where officials blocked off part of downtown Broad Street to traffic , the business group Red Bank RiverCenter has started to use artificial intelligence to count the number of visitors by tracking anonymous cellphone data.

It found foot traffic during Saturdays in July has been down 11% from June, Bob Zuckerman, executive director, said.

The heat appears to be cutting into an otherwise strong summer. At The Robinson Ale House on Broad Street, owner Tim McLoone said, the restaurant this summer has had some of the best weeks in its seven-year history. But as the heat index soared toward 100 degrees last week, business was off 16%, he said.

Heat is good for business, he said. But extreme heat? "To some extent, it might as well rain."

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'The heat came early this year'

As Sergio Rivas, 24, of Wantage, Sussex County, and his girlfriend, Allison Leach, 23, of Highlands, strolled along Broad Street last Wednesday, they had the place virtually to themselves. They spent the morning at relatively empty Sandy Hook before going to lunch at the also-relatively-empty Surf Taco in Red Bank.

Rivas gives tours at Yankee Stadium, and he said the summer has been tough. He usually relies on NJ Transit to get into Manhattan. But the train has run into delays due in part to overheated equipment. So he found an alternate route taking the PATH train instead. It makes for a four-hour commute after his tours are done.

"Compared to last year? You feel a difference," Rivas said. "The heat came early this year."

At the ocean, it is too cold. A south wind has been blowing steadily, creating a condition known as an upwell that pushes away warm water near the surface and replaces it with cooler water from below.

Bob Bogan, who operates the Gambler, a charter fishing company, out of Point Pleasant Beach, said the cooler water temperature has made fish lethargic, keeping some customers away. He operated a trip one day last week with about 20 passengers, about half of the usual crowd.

Bogan, who has captained the Gambler for 44 years, remembers only one summer where conditions were similar.

"Every once in a while you get a day where (the wind) blows in a different direction and fishing actually picks up right away," Bogan, 63, said. "But then, (last Wednesday) night, it blew really hard out of the south and just chilled the water right down again."

A group of Rutgers University scientists last week said rising temperatures, new and heavier rain patterns across the state, more tornadoes and local fish die-offs are signs that the Garden State’s climate is changing already.

New Jersey temperatures have risen more than 3.5 degrees over the past 125 years, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.

“It's not whether or not global warming is happening,” said Anthony Broccoli, a Rutgers University professor of atmospheric science. “It's whether or not it's happening even faster than it has happened in the past.”

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Powerless against power outages

As the extreme heat continues this week, business owners are trying to make up for lost ground.

Mike Metzner opened Saltwater Social , a new American restaurant in Highlands, at the beginning of June, but it wasn't long before a severe thunderstorm swept through the Bayshore about 4 p.m. on a Saturday with wind gusts reaching 62 mph, leaving the restaurant without power.

As it became clear that the outage was going to take a while to resolve, Saltwater Social's staff began calling to cancel reservations for some 250 guests.. And Metzner went to rest in his air-conditioned truck until the power came back on about 11:45 p.m.

Two Saturdays later, the power at Saltwater Social went out again, this time shortly after customers had arrived. Once again, the staff canceled reservations.

"We just try our best the next day," Metzner said. "You can't go back in time and fix it. We're looking at ways to get a generator to sustain staying open. But it's tough in the summer months."

Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter who has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry for more than 20 years. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 15 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ weather: The heat wave is making these Jersey Shore business owners miserable