NJ Weekend Weather: Temporary Temperature Tumble and Chance of Snow
New Jersey will return to more typical mid-January weather, as colder air flows in Friday and a chance for snow and wintry mix develops Saturday.
Here are your weather headlines for Friday, January 13, 2017...
Temperature Tumble
I am flabbergasted that a few spots in the Garden State reached an impressive 70 degrees on Friday! Record high temperatures were smashed at Newark and Atlantic City (both hit 67 degrees). Thermometers climbed to almost 30 degrees above normal for mid-January!
Friday is cooldown day. As of this writing, a cold front is sweeping through New Jersey, which will cause temperatures to begin dropping during the daytime hours. You'll know immediately when the cooldown begins, as a brisk northwest wind starts gusting to about 30 mph.
Even though Friday morning will remain quite mild, temperatures will fall into the 40s Friday afternoon and into the 30s by Friday evening. Keep in mind the end of the day will be very different than the beginning, weather-wise. Dress appropriately - grab a jacket for this afternoon!
Friday night will be seasonably cold, as temperatures bottom out in the mid 20s by Saturday morning. Winds will calm overnight, under partly cloudy skies.
A Little Bit of Winter
For the second Saturday in a row, a taste of winter is expected in New Jersey. Unlike last weekend, this round of snow should not present significant statewide problems. Having said that, a period of messiness could lead to slippery roads Saturday. Here's the breakdown:
--SETUP: With our newly refreshed cold air mass, high temperatures on Saturday will be limited to the lower to mid 30s. The incoming storm system is creating an incredibly icy mess from the Southern Plains to the Midwest. It's not expected to be particularly strong as it passes through New Jersey, but will certainly present enough lift to produce a period of persistent precipitation in New Jersey on Saturday. That precipitation, however, will have to battle dry air and questionable temperatures, which will ultimately limit accumulations.
--TIMING: Best chance for snow and wintry mix will be from late morning through evening on Saturday. In particular, the heaviest precipitation looks to fall between about 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Flakes and drops should end completely by 10 p.m. Saturday night, at the latest.
--TOTALS: About an inch of snow accumulation is possible, especially for inland parts of central and southern New Jersey. Our approximate bullseye of 1+ inch snowfall runs through Mercer, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Salem counties. Areas to the north will miss the storm system's greatest forcing, but could still pickup a healthy dusting. Farther southeast, temperatures will probably be too warm to sustain all snow.
--IMPACTS: Clearly, this storm system won't be a "big deal". But snowy and/or icy roads could get slippery for a while. You know the drill - leave yourself extra travel time, don't be afraid to slow down, use special caution on untreated and elevated surfaces, etc. Just don't be stupid.
Sunday and Beyond
By Sunday, skies will clear to partly sunny or mostly sunny, and temperatures will already start to climb again. Sunday's forecast high temperatures are mostly in the lower 40s - that's pretty typical for mid-January. Sunday might end up a little bit cooler in far North Jersey, in addition to any places that maintain snow cover from Saturday.
We'll maintain 40s and partial sunshine on Monday. Winds will switch to southwesterly late Monday into Tuesday. That's a warming wind, causing temperatures to bump into the 50s on Tuesday and Wednesday. Part of South Jersey may even return to the lower 60s on Wednesday!
In the middle of next week's warming trend, we'll see a chance of rain too - Tuesday afternoon in North Jersey, and Wednesday statewide.
The unseasonable warmth (i.e. above normal temperatures) will continue for the time being. I'll even go so far to pass along that models suggest New Jersey's next chance for any kind of significant winter weather is at least two weeks away!