Drivers in New Jersey are being urged to be extra cautious when traveling during the early hours on Christmas Eve, with a fast-moving storm system expected to drop a light coating of snow across most of the state and a thin layer of ice or freezing rain in some areas.
The National Weather Service says a weak clipper system from the Midwest will be bringing several hours of wintry precipitation to the Garden State, likely starting in the pre-dawn hours and winding down by the early afternoon on Tuesday.
“The precipitation will fall mostly as light snow north of Philadelphia,” the weather service said Monday afternoon. “However, a mixture of light freezing rain, snow, and sleet is forecast around the city of Philadelphia and points along the I-95 corridor.”
The threat of dangerous icy conditions prompted the weather service to issue a winter weather advisory for the Philadelphia region and four New Jersey counties: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Salem.
The advisory will be effective from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, a key travel day for people celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah on Wednesday.
A fast-moving storm system is expected to create slippery road conditions in New Jersey on Christmas Eve, bringing light snow, ice and freezing rain in the morning and early afternoon. Areas shaded in purple are under a winter weather advisory from early Tuesday morning through early Tuesday afternoon.National Weather Service
“While ice accumulations are expected to be light, a light glaze of ice could cause untreated roads and other paved surfaces to become very slippery, icy, and treacherous due to antecedent sub-freezing temperatures, potentially impacting holiday travel on Tuesday (Christmas Eve) morning,” the weather service’s Mount Holly office noted.
In areas where snow falls, only a light coating — not even amounting to an inch — is anticipated.
A fast-moving storm system is expected to create slippery road conditions in New Jersey on Christmas Eve, bringing light snow, ice and freezing rain in the morning and early afternoon.National Weather Service
Potential white Christmas?
Although an inch or more of snow would be needed on the ground on the morning of Christmas Day (Wednesday) to qualify as a “white Christmas,” and less than an inch is expected Tuesday, there‘s still a shot that some areas of New Jersey may have enough snow remaining from Saturday morning’s snow and the new snow from Tuesday to make it a white Christmas.
Temperatures have been so frigid the past few days that some of the snow from the weekend storm hasn’t melted yet.
As of Monday morning, weather reporting stations in many counties in the northern half of New Jersey and some in the central region, had anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of snowpack remaining, according to data from the volunteer organization of weather observers known as the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network.
However, forecasters are calling for sunshine to emerge after the new snow leaves Tuesday afternoon, with temperatures climbing into the upper 30s.
That could be warm enough to melt most of the snow by Christmas morning.
Current weather radar
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Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com or on X at @LensReality.
