An evasive record that has stood strong for nearly 122 years could possibly have been broken during the monster snowstorm that has hit New Jersey for the past three days.
The National Weather Service announced Tuesday night that it had received a preliminary report of 35.5 inches of snow on the ground in Mount Arlington in Morris County.
If the report is confirmed, it will contain the state’s long-standing record of 34 centimeters of snow, which fell during a multi-day snowstorm that stretched from February 11 to February 14, 1899.
The weather service does not yet declare a record, agency meteorologist Patrick O’Hara said. Although the agency has no reason to doubt the truth of the snowfall report, it still has to go through a rigorous process to confirm it.
O’Hara said the 35.5-inch snow report in Mount Arlington comes from a trained weather observer, someone who probably knows the right way to measure snow accurately. But to be declared a new nationwide record, it needs to be further investigated.
And it’s not a quick process.
“It will be much investigated,” O’Hara said. “It will not be days, it will not be weeks. I will probably be months. ”
On Monday, after receiving some earlier 30-centimeter snowfall reports from the National Weather Service, New Jersey State Climatologist David Robinson said what O’Hara said, saying all snowfall measurements are considered preliminary until they can be confirmed.
Robinson, whose office at Rutgers University oversees state climate data and records dating back to 1895, said any snowfall reports for something as important as a nationwide record would have to be scrutinized under procedures by the National Environmental Information Centers. , formerly known as the National Climatic Data Center.
Robinson said the process involves determining the procedure used by the weather observer who reported the snowfall measurement, and making sure the procedure meets the proper standards for measuring snow.
This is not something that the weather and climate experts take lightly, Robinson noted. Therefore, the National Weather Service cannot now declare the 35.5-inch snowfall report as a record.
If the measurement holds up, it is a number of solid 30-inch snowfall totals reported Monday night and Tuesday – the second and third day of this three-day winter storm.
This map shows how much snow has fallen over New Jersey and neighboring states since Tuesday morning, February 2nd.National Weather Service
TOP SNOWFALL REPORTS IN NJ
As of now, these are the highest preliminary snow totals in New Jersey during this monster storm:
- 35.5 inches reported in Mount Arlington, Morris County
- 33.2 inch reported in Montague, Sussex County
- 32.0 inch reported in Andover, Sussex County
- 31.3 inch in Hope, Warren County, reported
- 31.0 inch reported in Chester, Morris County
- 31.0 inches in Oxford, Warren County, reported
- 31.0 inch in Stanhope, Sussex County
- 30.4 inch reported in Chatham, Morris County
- 30.3 inch reported in Sparta, Sussex County
- 30.0 inches reported in Mendham, Morris County
- 30.0 inch reported in Sandyston, Sussex County
Current weather radar
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