Quick Update

The National Weather Service just finally gave in and decided to issue a Winter Storm Watch for Northwest New Jersey for 5—9 inches of snow.  Everything remains on track from last night and the models continue to increase precipitation amounts.  The worst of the storm still appears to be between about 7 pm and 10 pm on Saturday night.  It will likely be snowing very hard at that time. It will also likely start to mix with and then possibly change to freezing rain and sleet around 10 pm or so in many places and possibly even plain rain by around midnight in some far southeast locations.  The big question is how much snow and ice will fall?   I need to see more model information, mainly the European model ensemble information before I make a call on that, but right now I think that 4—8 inches is possible in all locations, with the lower amounts possible in southeastern sections with more mixing and the highest amounts in far northwest sections where it may not mix at all.  More a bit later by 6:30.