Winter Weather in New Jersey, February 24, 2004

A weakening Alberta Clipper dropped between one and two inches of snow across much of northwestern New Jersey. The snow began falling in the morning after sunrise on the 24th and ended during the early evening. Because air temperatures were around freezing and most of the snow fell during the day, it mainly accumulated on just grassy surfaces. But, as skies cleared later during the evening, standing, untreated water and slush froze and caused hazardous traveling conditions. Accumulations included 2.3 inches in Budd Lake (Morris County), 2.2 inches in Colesville (Sussex County), 1.6 inches in Marcella (Morris County), 1.5 inches in Sussex (Sussex County) and 1.0 inch in Wertsville (Hunterdon County), Boonton (Morris County), Hackettstown (Warren County) and Newton (Sussex County). Accumulations elsewhere in New Jersey were less than one inch and in many places less than half an inch. The Alberta low pressure system that brought the snow moved from the central Ohio Valley at 7 p.m. EST on the 23rd east into West Virginia around sunrise on the 24th and to the Virginia/North Carolina border during the early afternoon on the 24th. This low pressure system merged east of North Carolina during the early evening on the 24th with another developing low pressure system that formed on the South Carolina coastal waters earlier that day. By 7 a.m. EST on the 25th, the low pressure system was well offshore, about 500 miles east of the Delmarva Peninsula.