Listen, nobody’s calling for a blizzard, but New Jersey is about to get its first real taste of weekend snow this season. And the chances only seem to be increasing with each passing hour.
A quick little Alberta clipper is zipping across the Midwest and will throw snow at us from late Saturday night straight through Sunday morning. The jackpot looks to be southwest Jersey and the Delaware Valley counties—places like Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester, Camden, and Burlington have the best shot at seeing one to four inches. Everywhere else? Mostly a coating to two inches, maybe a touch more if the storm track wobbles just right.
,The cold we’ve been shivering through all week isn’t letting up yet either, according to reports from the National Weather Service.
Friday dries out and the wind finally relaxes, but it’s still only middle 30s with plenty of sunshine. Saturday actually feels almost decent during the daylight hours—cloudy, yes, but highs climb into the upper 30s north and low 40s closer to Philly.
Then the switch flips.
Snow starts moving in after midnight Saturday night for western areas, closer to 2-3 a.m. farther east. The heaviest band looks to set up between roughly 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. Sunday before it pulls away. By early Sunday afternoon it’s done, leaving behind cloudy skies and temperatures that barely get out of the 20s and low 30s.
How it shakes out where you live:
Up north (Sussex, Passaic, Morris, Bergen, etc.) Thursday: windy, cold, high 32, maybe a quick squall. Friday: sunny, high 34. Saturday day: cloudy, 37. Saturday night/Sunday morning: snow, generally a coating to two inches. Sunday: any leftover flurries gone by noon, high 29 and falling.
Central Jersey (Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Somerset) Same basic story, just a couple degrees warmer each day. Expect one to two inches overnight (maybe more), maybe pushing two and a half in western counties. Sunday high around 31.
South Jersey & Delaware Valley This is ground zero. Saturday night might start with a couple wet flakes or even a brief rain-snow mix right along the shore, but it flips to all snow pretty quick. One to four inches looks like a solid bet from Trenton-Philly southwestward, with the highest totals closer to Salem and Cumberland counties. Sunday high only 32.
Roads should mostly stay wet because ground temps are still above freezing and a lot of the snow falls during the day Sunday morning hours when traffic is light. That said, untreated surfaces, ramps, and back roads will absolutely get slippery, especially west of the Turnpike.
Bottom line: grab the rock salt, leave a few extra minutes for your Sunday morning plans, and enjoy the pretty coating while it lasts — because the real story next week is the cold that refuses to leave. Stay warm out there, Jersey.
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.