Challenging Travel Conditions Expected Today in South Jersey

South Jersey is under a winter weather advisory today for as much as 3-5' of snow, leading to what could be a very unpleasant afternoon commute home from work.

Here is the latest from Lite Rock Meteorologist Dan Zarrow.

Several inches of snow accumulation are expected in South Jersey,and bands of moderate to heavy snow could make for a challenging evening commute.

Today will be a wintry day for much of New Jersey, as a clipper system pushes past the southern half of the state. The snow bulls-eye for this storm appears to be along and southeast of the Philadelphia metro area, with pockets of 3 to 5 inches of snow expected.

Our standard computer forecast models have struggled with this storm. All week, I’ve been talking about the constant struggle over cold-enough-temperatures and a moist-enough-atmosphere. Everything came together nicely last night, and the best solution included higher precipitation and colder temperatures.

We can now be fairly confident that South Jersey will see the biggest snow totals, Central Jersey will see marginal snow accumulations, and North Jersey will see hardly anything at all.

While the forecast impacts and intensity of this clipper system have fluctuated widely so far this week, the timeline of this storm has never really been in question. First snowflakes and/or raindrops will push into the western part of the state by 11am.

The heaviest bands of snow are expected in the 3pm to 9pm window tonight. That means the evening commute is going to be quite challenging, with icy, slushy, and/or wet roads (depending where in the state you’re driving). The snow will taper off into the “light” range during the late evening and overnight hours, and should be done by daybreak Thursday morning.

The extended forecast has quiet weather for Thursday and Friday. But Saturday isn’t looking pretty – a coastal storm system is currently forecast to bring more significant snow and rain to New Jersey. I don’t want to get too specific on that part of the forecast until after our current clipper system moves through… but if you have any weekend plans, you’ll want to keep a close eye on the weather forecast as Saturday approaches.