Winter Storm — Northwestern Burlington, New Jersey

2015-03-01 · Northwestern Burlington, New Jersey

Wider weather episode

Double barrel low pressure systems brought a winter storm to New Jersey on the 1st. All snow fell in northwest New Jersey. Elsewhere a combination of snow, sleet and especially freezing rain in southern New Jersey affected the state. Snowfall averaged around an inch or less in the southern half of the state and 1.5 to 3.5 inches in the northern half of the state. But, ice accumulations on exposed surfaces reached as high as around one-third of an inch in the southern half of the state and caused scattered power outages. In addition, numerous accidents occurred because of the slippery roads.

Precipitation started as snow and spread from south to north across New Jersey between 9 a.m. and Noon EST on the 1st. The snow fell heavier at times during the late morning in the southern part of the state and during the early and mid afternoon in the central and northern part of the state. Precipitation changed to sleet during the first half of the afternoon in the southern half of the state and during the late afternoon in the Raritan Basin and Monmouth County. Precipitation then changed to freezing rain by the middle of the afternoon on the 1st in the southern half of the state and from the late afternoon into the early evening in the Raritan Basin and Monmouth County. Precipitation changed to plain rain during the first half of the evening in southeast New Jersey. Elsewhere precipitation ended as either freezing rain or snow during the middle and late evening on the 1st.

The weight of the ice caused power outages mainly in the southern half of the state as weak tree limbs and power lines came down. Atlantic City Electric reported about 1,200 of its customers lost power, with the greatest concentration in Cumberland County. One of the worst reported accidents was a two vehicle crash in Springfield Township (Burlington County) on U.S. Route 206 that injured eight people. In Princeton (Mercer County), police responded to nine car accidents in just a two hour period during the afternoon of the 1st. New Jersey Transit cross honored commuting tickets on Monday March 2nd.

Representative ice accumulations included 0.4 inches in Haddon Heights (Camden County) and Newport (Cumberland County), 0.3 inches in Whiting (Ocean County), 0.25 inches in Florence (Burlington County), Freehold (Monmouth County) and Williamstown (Gloucester County) and 0.2 inches in Metuchen (Middlesex County), Trenton (Mercer County), Mount Holly (Burlington County) and at the Atlantic City International Airport (Atlantic County).

Representative snowfall included 3.5 inches in Tewksbury Township (Hunterdon County), 3.3 inches in Chatham (Morris County), 3.0 inches in Whitehouse Station (Hunterdon County), Highland Lakes (Sussex County), Franklin Township (Somerset County) Randolph (Morris County) and Woodbridge (Middlesex County), 2.9 inches in Stewartsville (Warren County), 2.6 inches in Princeton (Mercer County), 2.5 inches in Red Bank (Monmouth County), Wantage (Sussex County) and North Plainfield (Somerset County), 2.0 inches in New Brunswick (Middlesex County), 1.7 inches in Ewing (Mercer County) and Long Branch (Monmouth County), 1.4 inches in Mount Holly (Burlington County), 1.3 inches in Estelle Manor (Atlantic County), 1.0 inch at Seabrook Farms (Cumberland County), 0.6 inches in Somerdale (Camden County) and Cape May (Cape May County) and 0.5 inches in Franklin Township (Gloucester County) and Jackson Township (Ocean County).

The winter storm was caused by the combination of an arctic high pressure system that left plenty of cold air in place near the surface and a low pressure system from the South that pumped precipitation into the region. At 7 a.m. EST on the 1st, a pair of low pressure systems were in Mississippi and the western Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast. During the early afternoon, while the low pressure system moved into the Tennessee Valley, a new low pressure system was forming off of the South Carolina coast. The latter low pressure system moved rapidly northeast and was off the New Jersey coast at 7 p.m. EST on the 1st while the latter low pressure system became part of a series of lows along a cold front west of the Appalachians. The coastal low pressure system passed near Nantucket, Massachusetts around Midnight EST on the 2nd. It took most of the associated moisture and precipitation with it as the inland low pressure systems and frontal boundary weakened overnight.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 565187. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.