WINTER STORM SUMMARY FOR
FEBRUARY 08, 2013 TO FEBRUARY 9, 2013 EVENT

Synopsis

An area of low pressure developed across the northern plains on Thursday February 7th, tracking eastward. Meanwhile, another area of low pressure developed along the coast of North Carolina, tracking northeast. Both lows approached the area on Friday February 8th with the coastal low intensifying as it moved toward the northeast. The two lows interacted with one another with the coastal low eventually absorbing the inland low late Friday. The system moved off toward New England on Friday night, moving into the Canadian maritimes by Saturday afternoon.

Watches/Warnings/Advisories

A Winter Storm Watch was issued at 350pm on Wednesday February 6th for the following areas: Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Warren in New Jersey; Carbon, Monroe and Northampton in Pennsylvania. The watch was upgraded to a Winter Storm Warning at 320pm on Thursday February 7th. In addition, the following areas were added to the warning: Northwestern Burlington and Ocean in New Jersey; Berks, Bucks, Western Chester, Lehigh and Montgomery in Pennsylvania. A Winter Weather Advisory was also issued at this time for the following areas; New Castle in Delaware; Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem and Southeastern Burlington in New Jersey; Eastern Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. A Winter Weather Advisory was issued at 353am on Friday February 8th for Cecil in Maryland. At 336pm on Friday February 8th, the Winter Storm Warning was downgraded to a Winter Weather Advisory for the the following areas: Northwestern Burlington and Ocean in New Jersey; Berks, Western Chester and Montgomery in Pennsylvania. The Winter Weather Advisory was cancelled at 950pm on Friday February 8th for the following areas: New Castle in Delaware; Cecil in Maryland; Cape May, Cumberland and Salem in New Jersey; all of Chester in Pennsylvania. The Winter Storm Warning and Winter Weather Advisory were cancelled for all areas at 338am on Saturday February 9th.

Precipitation/Temperatures/Winds

Precipitation started to spread across the area during the morning hours on Friday February 8th. Areas across the Lehigh Valley and points north, along with northern New Jersey started as all snow and remained snow through the entire event. Some areas started as a mix of snow and rain before changing over to all rain during the daytime hours. A changeover to all snow occurred during the evening. Total snowfall accumulations varied widely across the forecast areas with a fairly tight gradient from northeast to southwest in New Jersey. Amount across the higher terrain was mainly in the 9-12 inch range with up to 14 inches reported in parts of Sussex and Morris Counties. Mainly 4 to 9 inches were reported across the remainder of northern and central New Jersey. South central New Jersey saw 3 to 6 inches with southern New Jersey seeing 3 inches or less. Across eastern Pennsylvania, amounts ranged from an inch or less across parts of Chester County and up to 9 inches in the Southern Poconos. Only trace amounts of snow were reported across the southern most points in New Jersey and across Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland.

Significant Impacts/Aspects

Schools across northern New Jersey closed on Friday February 8th in advance of the expected snow. Scattered power outages were reported.

Notes

Information contained in this summary is preliminary. More complete and/or detailed information may be contained in subsequent monthly NOAA storm data publications.