Ice Storm and Winter Weather in New Jersey, January 15 to 16, 1998

A large high pressure system that moved across lower Quebec Province helped set the stage for freezing rain and an ice storm across much of Eastern Pennsylvania. Cold air circulating around this high pressure system became trapped at the lowest layers of the atmosphere as a developing low pressure system along the southeast coast of the United States helped pump warmer air above the ground across the region. The northeast winds circulating around this low pressure system kept the cold air trapped as temperatures only stubbornly rose toward the freezing mark. Enough warm air made into Mercer County to change the freezing rain to rain by the evening of the 15th. Farther north, from northern Hunterdon and Somerset Counties through Sussex County precipitation fell heavier and longer as freezing rain with as much as 2/3rds of an inch of ice accruing on exposed surfaces in Sussex County. The heaviest freezing rain fell during the afternoon and early evening hours on the 15th. By midnight temperatures rose above the freezing mark in all locations of Northwest New Jersey, but remained around the freezing mark through the morning of the 16th in Sussex County. In Somerset County, twenty-five accidents an hour were reported during a two hour span the afternoon of the 15th in the northern part of the county, from Interstate 78 northward. One woman was trapped in her vehicle for 40 minutes on Interstate 78. In Morris County, Interstate 287 was described as a parking lot. A jackknifed tractor trailer shut down the eastbound lanes of Interstate 80 for more than an hour during the afternoon of the 15th. In Hanover Township, 17 accidents occurred within 30 minutes. In Dover, 25 accidents occurred within an hour. Sections of New Jersey State Route 24 and U.S. Route 202 (called a death trap in Montville Township) were closed. In Rockaway Township, a school bus was involved in an accident, but none of the children on board were injured. Accidents also occurred in the other northwestern New Jersey Counties. In Warren County, in Lopatcong Township, westbound U.S.Route 22 was closed due to a serious accident. Downed tree limbs and power lines also caused blackouts to about 2,000 homes within the county, mainly around Phillipsburg and Oxford Township.