The National Weather Ser­vice has posted both a Win­ter Weather Advi­sory and a Coastal Flood Watch for Stone Harbor for Thurs­day evening through Fri­day afternoon. A major win­ter storm that will crip­ple part of New Eng­land over the next 48 hours is expected to bring some rain, snow, strong winds, and the poten­tial for coastal flood­ing to our region. The storm will move in late Thurs­day into Thurs­day evening as rain, switch over to snow dur­ing the overnight hours, and end with light snow Fri­day morn­ing before sun­shine returns. The pre­dic­tion for snow­fall totals for our region is between 2–4 inches. Cold air will fol­low this storm with wind gusts approach­ing 45mph and wind chill val­ues on Fri­day at –4.

In addi­tion, a Coastal Flood watch is also posted for our region. There could be minor to mod­er­ate coastal flood­ing at time of high tide on Thurs­day evening, and again on Fri­day morn­ing. The Fri­day morn­ing com­mute is expected to be the most trou­ble­some with the poten­tial for flood­ing in flood prone areas with snow on the ground, and strong winds. High tide on Thurs­day evening will occur at the Townsend’s Inlet Bridge between Avalon and Sea Isle City at 8:43pm; high tide returns Fri­day morn­ing at 9:06am.

Please exer­cise cau­tion while dri­ving dur­ing this storm event. Please secure any out­door objects before sun­set on Thurs­day as they will be sub­ject to strong winds overnight into Fri­day. Inter­mit­tent power out­ages are pos­si­ble dur­ing this storm. If you have any emer­gency, please dial 9–1-1. Please con­tinue to pay atten­tion to tra­di­tional local media out­lets dur­ing this storm event.

Here is the text of the Win­ter Weather Advi­sory and the Coastal Flood Watch posted Thurs­day morn­ing by the National Weather Ser­vice:
Win­ter Weather Advi­sory
State­ment as of 3:32 AM EST on Jan­u­ary 02, 2014

… Win­ter Weather Advi­sory in effect from 6 PM this evening to
1 PM EST Friday…

The National Weather Ser­vice in Mount Holly has issued a Win­ter
Weather Advi­sory for snow and blow­ing snow, which is in effect
from 6 PM this evening to 1 PM EST Friday.

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

* Accu­mu­la­tions… snow accu­mu­la­tion of 2 to 4 inches, with lesser
amounts in the far south and near the coast.

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

* Impacts… travel should become haz­ardous tonight as snow begins
to accu­mu­late. This will be an increas­ingly fluffy snow and as
winds increase tonight… blow­ing and drift­ing snow will make
travel even more haz­ardous. Road plow­ing oper­a­tions will be
affected… espe­cially due to blow­ing and drift­ing snow.

* Winds… north 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph.

* Tem­per­a­tures… start­ing out rang­ing between the lower 30s to
lower 40s this after­noon, then falling into the 20s and teens
tonight. All areas should be in the teens by day­break Fri­day.
Where tem­per­a­tures start out well above freez­ing today, flash
freez­ing can occur tonight as tem­per­a­tures rapidly drop below
freez­ing and the snow increases.

* Vis­i­bil­i­ties… less than one half of a mile a times tonight.

Precautionary/preparedness actions…

A Win­ter Weather Advi­sory means that peri­ods of snow… sleet… or
freez­ing rain will cause travel dif­fi­cul­ties. Be pre­pared for
slip­pery roads and lim­ited vis­i­bil­i­ties… and use cau­tion while
driving.

Coastal Flood Watch
State­ment as of 3:10 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 the day on Fri­day. Some minor
tidal flood­ing could also occur with the high tide cycle this
morn­ing as astro­nom­i­cal Spring tides are occur­ring with the new
moon.

* At Sandy Hook, New Jer­sey, high tide occurs at 855 am EST Fri­day
with a fore­cast tide level of 7.5 to 8.0 feet above mean lower
low water.

* At Sea­side Heights, New Jer­sey, high tide occurs at 825 am EST
Fri­day with a fore­cast tide level of near 7.5 feet above mean
lower low water.

* 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.

* At Break­wa­ter Har­bor, Delaware, high tide occurs at 949 am EST
Fri­day with a fore­cast tide level of 6.5 to 7.0 feet above mean
lower low water.

* At Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, high tide occurs at 855 am EST
Fri­day with a fore­cast tide level of 6.5 to 7.0 feet above mean
lower low water.

* Seas… 6 to 10 feet on the ocean and 2 to 5 feet on Delaware Bay.

* 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.