Wide variety of weather in Central Jersey

[RU848789]

Overnight, we got about 1" of snow, as of 6:30 am (when I woke up - it was snowing iightly at 1 am, when I went to bed). Temps were about 28-29F at that time and the snow changed to spotty freezing rain around 7 am, as the temp hit about 30-31F - trees, cars and other surfaces were all covered with a thin layer of ice, but roads didn't really get covered (residual salt? some solar heat absorbed? traffic?). Temps then went above freezing by about 11 am, peaking at 34F, with just plain rain falling, but in the last 10 minutes, the temp has dropped back down to 33F and the rain has changed back to snow. All kinds of stuff going on aloft that I can't see, I'm sure. Hopefully, we'll get all snow from here on out, as indicated by the NWS, which has cut their temp maxes from earlier this morning and indicated a bit more snow is likely in our area and to the north and west. We'll see. I don't see how any forecaster could have predicted all of these occurrences accurately for the overall area - way too complex and the forecasts don't allow for accuracy at that fine a geographical level of detail - I'm sure it's probably still raining 5 miles east of here (say Perth Amboy, on the Raritan Bay) and it probably changed to snow 30 minutes earlier 5 miles west of here (say Piscataway), yet all these points are in Middlesex County and have likely had widely divergent weather today, but the forecasters typically only define things at the county level. Fun to watch though - and fun to play in - time to go sledding with my 9-year old son on our little hill across the street.

[Anonymous]

I'm here in Northern Ocean County, less than a minute away is the Monmouth County line. Right now its 33 with a dewpoint of 33 with WNW winds at 2 gusting 10 SSW at 12. and its raining, when do you see it changing over? soon, we got about a half of inch and some ice, and now the rain is melting some of the 7 inches that I got on thursday. SIGH

[RU848789]

Well, the NWS in NY just declared WS warnings for Bergen County and Southern Westchester, Southern Fairfield and Southern New Haven Counties for 5-7" of snow! And the areas immediately to the north of these areas they are forecasting 3-6" of snow this pm. But to the immediate south, i.e., NYC and LI, they're saying 1-2" of snow. Talk about some strong gradients. And Mt. Holly just updated they're forecasts to estimate 2-4" in the NW areas (Morris, Warren, Sussex, etc) and 1-2" in areas to the S and E, like Middlesex County (1" forecast in Monmouth Co now - good luck). Although, we've already gotten about 2" of new snow since it changed here a few hours ago. Wild changes in weather today!

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/phi/

[RU848789]

Hey, they finally woke up in Mount Holly, as per below (we did have near white out conditions for about 30 minutes; snowing moderately now):

NJZ007>010-012-015-PAZ060>062-067>071-182048-
BERKS PA-BUCKS PA-CHESTER PA-DELAWARE PA-HUNTERDON NJ-LEHIGH PA-
MERCER NJ-MIDDLESEX NJ-MONTGOMERY PA-MORRIS NJ-NORTHAMPTON PA-
PHILADELPHIA PA-SOMERSET NJ-WARREN NJ-
101 PM EST SUN JAN 18 2004

...BURST OF HEAVY SNOW AND POOR VISIBILITY BRIEFLY...

A MIXTURE OF RAIN FREEZING RAIN...SLEET AND SNOW HAS BEEN FALLING
ACROSS THE REGION SINCE EARLY THIS MORNING. THE PRECIPITATION WILL
BE COMING TO AN END LATER THIS AFTERNOON INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS
FROM NORTHWEST TO SOUTHEAST.

TEMPERATURES SOUTH OF THE DELAWARE VALLEY HAVE BEEN AT OR ABOVE
FREEZING WHILE NORTHERN AREAS ARE AT OR BELOW FREEZING. THIS
TEMPERATURE DISCONTINUITY CAN BE SEEN ON THE DOPPLER RADAR AS AN
ENHANCED AREA OF PRECIPITATION STRETCHING FROM LANCASTER COUNTY
NORTHEAST INTO CENTRAL NEW JERSEY. THIS IS KNOWN AS THE BRIGHT BAND
OR POINT WHERE A CHANGEOVER FROM LIQUID TO FROZEN PRECIPITATION
OCCURS.

LOCATIONS NORTH OF THIS LINE CAN EXPERIENCE NEAR WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS
WHEN THE VISIBILITY DROPS TO NEAR ZERO AND THE SNOW FALLS AT A RATE
OF PERHAPS AN INCH OR TWO AN HOUR.

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES CONTINUE FOR THIS AREA AND THE HEAVIER SNOW
IS ONLY GOING TO MAKE THE CONDITIONS WORSE FOR A TIME OVER THE NEXT
COUPLE OF HOURS.

MOTORISTS ARE ADVISED TO USE EXTREME CAUTION FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE
AFTERNOON AND PERHAPS STAY HOME AND ALLOW FOR THE ROAD CREWS TO TREAT
THE HIGHWAYS.