Expected Snow Totals Increase for Wednesday’s Nor’ Easter

Lite Rock Meteorologist Dan Zarrow has increased his predictions for snow state-wide Wednesday, during a nor'easter on the busiest travel day of the year.

Zarrow still thinks coastal South Jersey will receive mostly rain or a wintery mix with a coating of snow. However, inland parts of Atlantic,  Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean counties may see 1-2 inches of snow, and areas of New Jersey to the north and west can expect substantially more snow.

Here's Dan's statewide forecast for Wednesday...

Rain changing over to snow. Heaviest precipitation falls between late morning and mid-afternoon.

Snow Totals:

*8+ inches in far North Jersey

*4-8 inches above and along I-78

*2 to 4 inches above and along I-195

*1-2 inches in South Jersey.

*Mostly rain with a coating to an inch of snow along the immediate coast.

"It's just going to be nasty traveling Wednesday, Wednesday night," said David A. Robinson, the New Jersey state climatologist. "Even if it's rain, it's going to be a wind-swept rain, and where it snows, it's going to obviously make for even worse travel."

Robinson said "a change in the forecast track of 50 to 100 miles can make all the difference" when it comes to the amount of precipitation, the rain-snow line and how long it might snow.

A winter storm watch was in effect in most of northern and central New Jersey, according to the National Weather Service.

The nor'easter will arrive during the busiest travel day of the holiday period. The storm will arrive as thousands of people hit the highways to visit loved ones. Storm impacts will include wet, heavy snow in the north, heavy rain in the south and gusty winds everywhere.

"Land and air travel will be negatively impacted Wednesday and Wednesday night just before a major holiday," according to the National Weather Service. "Some power outages are possible with the combination of gusty winds and snow hanging on wires and tree limbs."

In New Jersey, AAA projects that about 1.2 million New Jerseyans will travel at least 50 miles from home during the Thanksgiving holiday travel period — Wednesday to Sunday — up 4.1 percent from last Thanksgiving

Because of the high volume of holiday traffic, travel plans completed by 10 a.m. Wednesday in this area would avoid most of the trouble from this storm, especially north and west of the I-95 corridor, according to the briefing by Joe Miketta, a Mount Holly meteorologist.