Thurs, January 2nd–Winter Storm Warning, Coastal Flood Watch Posted for Stone Harbor

The National Weather Ser­vice has posted a Win­ter Storm Warn­ing and a Coastal Flood watch for Stone Harbor.  The Win­ter Storm Warn­ing is in effect from Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 2nd at 6:00pm through Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 3rd at 1:00pm.  The Coastal Flood Watch is in effect through Fri­day after­noon. A major win­ter storm that will bring blizzard-like con­di­tions to New Eng­land will begin to move into our region Thurs­day after­noon.  Pre­cip­i­ta­tion is expected to start as rain but will quickly change to snow dur­ing the late evening and overnight hours into Fri­day morn­ing.  The cur­rent fore­cast is call­ing for between four and six inches of snow for Cape May County, includ­ing bar­rier island com­mu­ni­ties.  The Fri­day morn­ing com­mute is expected to be dif­fi­cult due to snow, very cold con­di­tions, and strong gusty winds. Most of the snow is expected overnight into Fri­day morning.

Com­pound­ing the weather sit­u­a­tion is a Coastal Flood Watch for our region that could bring minor to mod­er­ate flood­ing at time of high tide, espe­cially in flood prone areas of our com­mu­nity.  Motorists are advised to exer­cise cau­tion while dri­ving overnight and Fri­day morn­ing, espe­cially in areas prone to coastal flood­ing.  Please give your­self extra time for your morn­ing com­mute on Fri­day and never attempt to drive on any streets that are par­tially or com­pletely flooded.

Strong winds with gusts to 45mph and wind chill val­ues below zero are expected on Fri­day.  Now is a good time to bring inside any objects from out­side your prop­erty that may be sub­ject to high winds.

High tide at the Townsend’s Inlet Bridge between Avalon and Sea Isle City will occur Thurs­day at 8:43pm, and again Fri­day at 9:06am.  The Fri­day morn­ing high tide may result in minor to mod­er­ate flood­ing in flood prone areas.

Please con­tinue to mon­i­tor this web­site and local tra­di­tional media out­lets for updated infor­ma­tion regard­ing this win­ter storm.  If you have an emer­gency, please dial 9–1-1.  Here is the text of the Win­ter Storm Warn­ing and the Coastal Flood Watch posted Thurs­day after­noon by the National Weather Service:

State­ment as of 1:59 PM EST on Jan­u­ary 02, 2014

… Win­ter Storm Warn­ing in effect from 6 PM this evening to 1 PM EST Friday…

The National Weather Ser­vice in Mount Holly has issued a Win­ter Storm Warn­ing for snow and blow­ing snow… which is in effect from 6 PM this evening to 1 PM EST Fri­day. The Win­ter Weather Advi­sory is no longer in effect.

* Loca­tions… south­ern tip of New Jer­sey and much of the Del­marva area exclud­ing Tal­bot County Mary­land and Sus­sex County Delaware.

* Haz­ard types… snow along with areas of blow­ing and drift­ing snow.

* Snow accu­mu­la­tions… 4 to 6 inches.

* Tim­ing… pre­cip­i­ta­tion should start as rain or rain snow mix late this after­noon before chang­ing to snow this evening. The bulk of the snow is expected overnight into Fri­day morning.

* Impacts… travel will become haz­ardous tonight as snow begins to accu­mu­late and tem­per­a­tures plunge into the 20s. The snow late at night will be fluffy and as winds increase… blow­ing and drift­ing snow may add to the win­ter travel haz­ards. Car door locks may freeze locked if unat­tended out­doors tonight.

* Winds… north 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph.

* Tem­per­a­tures… lows by day­break Fri­day near 15 with wind chill just below zero.

* Vis­i­bil­i­ties… less than one half of a mile at times in snow later tonight.

Precautionary/preparedness actions…

A Win­ter Storm Warn­ing means sig­nif­i­cant amounts of snow… sleet… and ice are expected or occur­ring. Strong winds are also pos­si­ble. This will make travel very haz­ardous or impossible.

Coastal Flood Watch

State­ment as of 9:41 AM EST on Jan­u­ary 02, 2014

… Coastal Flood Watch remains in effect from late tonight through Fri­day afternoon…

* loca­tion… coastal sec­tions of New Jer­sey from Rar­i­tan Bay… along the Ocean­side into Delaware Bay and coastal sec­tions of Kent and Sus­sex County in Delaware.

* Coastal flood­ing… the poten­tial exists for mod­er­ate tidal flood­ing espe­cially along north coastal New Jer­sey dur­ing the high tide cycle that occurs dur­ing Fri­day morning.

* Minor tidal flood­ing was occur­ring along the New Jer­sey coast with this morn­ings high tide cycle. The flood­ing for tomor­row morn­ing should see tides one half to 1 foot higher than the high­est val­ues that occurred this morning.

* Ocean sea state… this morn­ings wave heights are gen­er­ally 2 to 4 feet. Tomor­row morn­ing will be dif­fer­ent with an east­erly swell of 7 to 8 feet com­ing ashore caus­ing beach erosion.

* At Atlantic City… New Jer­sey… high tide occurs at 832 am EST Fri­day with a fore­cast tide level of 6.5 to 7.0 feet above mean lower low water.

* At Cape May… New Jer­sey… on the ocean front high tide occurs at 906 am EST Fri­day with a fore­cast tide level of 7.0 to 7.5 feet above mean lower low water.

* Impacts… the poten­tial exists for road­way flood­ing and pos­si­bly some minor prop­erty dam­age. In addi­tion any over wash has the strong like­li­hood of freez­ing as tem­per­a­tures will be and remain below freez­ing. Strong northerly winds gust­ing to 40 to 45 mph should occur. Beach ero­sion is also possible.

Precautionary/preparedness actions…

A coastal Flood Watch means that con­di­tions are favor­able for the devel­op­ment of mod­er­ate or major coastal flood­ing. Pay close atten­tion to updated fore­casts and state­ments and take appro­pri­ate action to pro­tect life and prop­erty. Fol­low the rec­om­men­da­tions of local emer­gency man­age­ment officials.