Just a few weeks ago, temperatures hovered in the 70s in New Jersey and some folks were thinking we might be in for an early spring.

Think again.

After getting belted with a nasty nor’easter at the end of last week, many parts of the Garden State are bracing for up to a foot of snow or more along with high winds, sleet and freezing rain on Wednesday.

According to New Jersey state climatologist Dave Robinson, this is a very tricky time of year.

“Spring is blooming down to the south and it’s still the dead of winter to the north, so we’re squeezed right in between that here in New Jersey and things can get really volatile.”

He noted last month was the third warmest February on record in the Garden State.

“And then here we go into March and we have the major storm of last Friday and another today — that’s the volatility of the end of the winter.”

In fact, Robinson said we frequently get clobbered by nasty storms in March.

Three of them in particular stand out.

“The most famous of them all is the Great Blizzard of 1888, due to several feet of snow and hurricane force winds.”

That storm pummeled Jersey over a three-day span, from March 11 to the 14, 130 years ago.

On March 13, 1993, there was a storm “that came out of the South and gave New Jersey 10 to 12 inches of snow, sleet, freezing rain, very strong winds.”

Robinson noted that was the first ever called a Superstorm.

You might have forgotten but, March 13-14 last year gave New Jersey 6 to 9 inches of snow in Central Jersey and up to 20 inches in North Jersey.

“We only have to look back to last year when the temperatures in March in New Jersey actually averaged colder than in February," he said.

He added there is also the potential for Round 3: Another storm that could hit New Jersey at the beginning of next week.

Robinson said average temperatures during March rise 5 to 10 degrees across the state, except right along the coast.

“So these occurrences become more and more uncommon as we get to towards the latter week or two of the month.”

He noted the further we get into March, “the odds start favoring more agreeable weather.”

You can contact reporter David Matthau at David.Matthau@townsquaremedia.com

 

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