UPDATED FORECAST SATURDAY: Heavy snow, dangerous blizzard conditions to continue today. Latest N.J. snowfall totals, forecast.
A blizzard warning has been issued for the five counties along the Jersey Shore and winter storm warnings have been upgraded for nearly the entire state for a monster snowstorm expected to slam New Jersey starting tonight with up to 18 inches of snow and widespread totals between 4 inches and a foot.
The blizzard advisory, which indicates a dangerous combination of high winds, blowing snow and low visibility - includes Atlantic, Cape May, eastern Burlington, Monmouth and Ocean counties.
The rest of the state (except for Sussex and Warren) has been bumped up to a winter storm warning.
Gov. Phil Murphy has scheduled an 11:30 a.m. briefing on the storm. No state of emergency has been declared yet.
Some light snow is already falling in northern New Jersey as a precursor to the main event tonight.
The snow is expected to start falling by 7 p.m. in South Jersey when all the warnings take effect and later Friday night in central and North Jersey. Snow and gusty winds that could be a strong as 50 mph are expected to continue until into Saturday afternoon.
Warren and Sussex counties will be under a winter weather advisory until 3 p.m. Saturday. The rest of the warnings last until 7 p.m. Saturday.
The Jersey Shore and southeast Burlington County is expected to get 8 to 15 inches of snow as winds gust as high 50 mph but up to 18 inches is possible. Blizzard conditions are most likely with a few miles of the coast from late Friday night until about mid-day Saturday, the weather service said. Power outages are possible as well.
Under the weather service’s technical definition, a blizzard needs to have all of these conditions during a period of three hours or longer: falling and/or blowing snow, sustained winds or frequent wind gusts of 35 mph or stronger and visibility frequently reduced to a quarter-mile or less.
Here’s how the forecast is shaping up elsewhere in the Garden State, according to the weather service.
- Camden, Gloucester, Middlesex, Mercer, northwest Burlington, Salem and Somerset: 4 to 11 inches of accumulation with winds gusts of up to 35 mph.
- Bergen, Essex, Union and eastern Passaic: 4 to 7 inches with winds gusts as high as 40 mph.
- Hudson: 6 to 9 inches and maximum winds gusts of 45 mph
- Morris and Hunterdon: 3 to 6 inches with winds gusting up to 35 mph
- western Passaic: 4 to 6 inches and winds gusting as high as 35 mph
- Sussex and Warren: 2 to 4 inches with top wind gusts reaching 40 mph
AccuWeather.com is still calling for 6 to 12 inches for most of New Jersey with lesser amounts further north and west.
Once the snow winds up, the big concern is wind chill values that will dip below zero on Saturday night and Sunday.
Sunday will be sunny but cold — the high temps will be below freezing. Monday and Tuesday will also be dry and mainly sunny with temps in the low to mid 30s and then the low 40s, respectively. Sunday night and Monday night will downright frigid with lows dipping all the way into the single digits in northwest New Jersey Sunday night into Monday. The next nigh temps will fall into the teens.
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NJ Advance Media staff writer Jackie Roman contributed to this report.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com
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