Christmas Eve Weather Discussion

Tonight’s storm should give most areas in Northern New Jersey a white Christmas by the time we wake up tomorrow morning, although it should only amount to a dusting to an inch or two in most locations.  Then we must immediately turn our eyes to a much stronger storm that will approach our area on Wednesday. This storm should start as snow in all areas around 3pm, becoming heavy at times and accumulating to around 1-3 inches for areas of Northern New Jersey roughly east of Rt. 287 and south of Rt. 80, and 3-6 inches roughly west of Rt. 287 and north of Rt. 80, prior to possibly mixing with or changing to sleet, freezing rain, or rain.  The heavy snow, sleet, freezing rain, or rain will continue through the night and it will be quite windy with winds gusting to 40mph, in addition, areas that receive mostly rain will likely experience some flooding, as the water levels still have not completely subsided from last week’s heavy flooding rains. The precipitation will become light and scattered early in the morning and continue throughout much of the day on Thursday, with a light accumulation of snow or ice possible in some locations. Then we need to turn our eyes to the next storm, which will likely bring a significant snowfall to ALL of Northern New Jersey.  The snow should develop around 1pm on Saturday and become heavy at times, ending around 2 or 3am on Sunday morning with 6-12 inches of accumulation possible.  After this storm, it will then get quite cold with highs only reaching the 20’s and lows dropping as low as the single digits.  The only good news is that this extremely cold air may push our January 1^st or 2^nd storm out to sea and keep us dry for New Year’s and thereafter.