The severe winter storm that has been pouring snow on New Jersey for more than a day has, according to the National Weather Service, dropped enough snow on one major city to break a daily record of the snowfall.
Newark Liberty International Airport was covered with 14 centimeters of snow on Monday, breaking the airport’s daily snowfall record for February 1, which was 7.5 centimeters on this date in 1957, the weather service’s regional office in New York said.
Newark also picked up 2.2 inches of snow on Sunday, so the current storm total is at least 16.2 inches, with some snow showers still falling on Monday night.
Meanwhile, forecasters are keeping a close eye on a much larger record – an elusive record that has stood strong for nearly 122 years: New Jersey’s largest snowstorm total.
The distinction belongs to the city of Cape May, where 34 centimeters of snow fell during a multi-day storm that lasted from February 11 to February 14, 1899. Since that time, no snowstorm in Garden State has produced as much snow. , although some came very close.
Now all eyes are on the current, slow-moving north-east, which has already dumped a large amount of snow on parts of northern New Jersey.
Late Monday night, the National Weather Service’s forecast office in Mount Holly received reports of 30 inches of snow on the ground in Mendham in Morris County and 28.3 inches of snow in Sparta in Sussex County.
It is quite possible that a few more inches of snow could fall overnight, so forecasters at the Mount Holly office pay close attention to the long-standing record, said Jonathan O’Brien, a meteorologist at the office.
Even if a snowfall report of more than 34 centimeters is received by the National Weather Service, it would not be declared, according to O’Brien, and a statement of all times, unless it goes through a rigorous verification process. New York State Climatologist David Robinson, whose office at Rutgers University oversees the state’s climate data and records.
O’Brien said all snow reports reported to the weather service are considered preliminary until confirmed. And Robinson said snowfall reports for something as important as a nationwide record would be widely investigated under procedures instituted by the National Centers for Environmental Information, formerly known as the National Climatic Data Center.
Robinson said the process involves determining the procedure used by the weatherman, or ‘spotter’, 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.
So, if you happen to see a photo on social media of someone wearing a tape measure containing snow somewhere in New Jersey, you should not assume that it is a new record of all time. This will still need to be verified.
Current weather radar
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Len Melisurgo can be reached at [email protected].