Flooding in Sea Bright 3-7-2013
A tattered American flag flaps in the strong breeze as a JCP&L truck turns on to flooded South St. to restore some lines downed by the Nor'easter storm that ripped through the area yesterday and today. Sea Bright, NJ 3/7/13 (Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger)
For most of New Jersey, this was the big storm that didn't happen.
The snowfall from the storm was never expected to be intense, but forecasters had predicted up to six inches of snow last night. So what happened?
The flakes never materialized because the air was too dry and too warm.
Mitchell Gaines, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly station, said temperatures stayed in the upper 30s and the moisture wasn’t as much as expected.
Less than an inch of rain fell in the northern and central parts of New Jersey, and David Robinson, state climatologist at Rutgers University. He said the southern section saw 1 to 1.5 inches of rain.
The storm's lingering impact on the airports includes 142 flight cancellations at LaGuardia Airport, which appear to been decided ahead of time, with no cancellations today at Newark Liberty, and just four at JFK, the Port Authority said.
But this storm system that claimed at least five lives in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic region may not be done with the Garden State just yet, forecasters warn.
“In some respects, New Jersey dodged a bullet,” said Robinson. However, “this was always known to be a complex event coming in multiple parts.
“It looks like there will be a Part Two to this event.”
With Part Two of this “nuisance” storm, he said, there could be 2 to 4 inches of snow tonight in the northern half of the Garden State. The morning commute Friday could be a bit slippery, he said.
The Morristown area and northwest New Jersey could see between 2 and 4 inches of snow tonight, and less than an inch of snow could accumulate in central New Jersey overnight, said Mitchell Gaines, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly station.
Wind gusts are expected to taper down, though rough surfs and high tides could still plague the state’s coastal areas until Saturday. A coastal flood advisory remains in effect until 9 a.m. Friday.
The storm’s gusts were what packed a punch. Winds between 60 to 65 miles per hour were felt on the coastal areas, with Cape May City seeing some of the strongest gusts in the state at 69 miles per hour, Gaines said. Winds in the inland areas were between 42 to 50 miles per hour, he said.
While the winds caused some damage, including tearing the roof off a condominium complex in Stone Harbor in Cape May County, only about 1,200 outages were reported, mostly in Coastal areas.
The winds also whipped the waves toward the coastline, causing several municipalities to flood Wednesday night and this morning.
The main road in Sea Bright, Ocean Avenue was underwater this morning, and flooding was also reported in Union Beach and Cape May County.
“We think we’ve seen the worst of the coastal flooding so far,” Gaines said. “We feel this thing is starting to head back to normal.”