Impending Winter Storm Could Lead To Record Monthly Snow Totals For Tri-State Area
EDGEWATER, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Transportation officials in New Jersey say they're ready for snow to start falling again Thursday.
Wednesday was another busy day at the Bergen County Department of Public Works annex as plows got attached and checked over and salt spreaders loaded.
"It can be tiring, but the paychecks are nice," said Gregory Rommes, who has been with Bergen County Public Works for 15 years.
It seems Rommes doesn't mind this busy winter.
"My family, they think I'm crazy. My friends think I'm crazy," Rommes said. "I love being out there plowing."
Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco says getting salt hasn't been easy; a slow start to winter was the culprit.
"There wasn't a lot of need for salt, so there wasn't a lot of mining," Tedesco said.
Now, back-to-back storms are straining the supply. Not to worry this go-round, says Tedesco.
"We're going to be OK," he said.
New Jersey's Department of Transportation issued travel restrictions for commercial vehicles on multiple interstate highways, which go into effect at 4 a.m. Thursday.
Additionally, COVID vaccine mega-sites in Burlington, Middlesex and Morris counties will be closed Thursday.
Appointments at the Burlington site will be moved to Friday, and appointments at the Middlesex and Morris sites will be moved to Saturday.
CBS2's Vanessa Murdock reached out to Dr. Dave Robinson, New Jersey State Climatologist at Rutgers University, to reflect on winter so far.
He declares January boring, then winter went bonkers.
"The last hours of January, the big storm kicked in and things haven't slowed down since," Robinson said.
The 30-year snowfall average in Central Park is 30.1 inches. So far this season, we measure 33.8 inches.
"You go in northwest Jersey, they're about 50 inches," Robinson said.
That's about 10 inches above where they'd be for a full season.
"It doesn't have to snow another flake and we've got an average to above-average year," Robinson said.
More snow is on the way, though, and the storm en route has the potential to put us in the books as a top 10, maybe even top five, snowiest February on record.
So far in February, we have picked up 21.2 inches. About two inches are needed to put us in the top 10.
If we get closer to eight inches, we catapult to second snowiest February.