'Significant Winter Storm' Headed For Bergen County

A "significant winter storm" is expected to hit Bergen County from early Friday until Saturday afternoon and could cause blizzard conditions, according to the National Weather Service.

The NWS issued a winter storm watch from Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon, predicting 6-12 inches of snow and some ice from sleet and freezing rain.

Visibility could be limited to several hundred feet due to heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain. Driving conditions may be "dangerous."

Winds are expected to blow at 20 or 30 miles per hour, with gusts hitting as much as 50 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service. The gusts may bring down some tree limbs and could cause power outages.

The storm could be even worse, according to Mark Edgerton, a hobby meteorologist and teacher at Indian Hills High School in Oakland who runs his own weather blog.

As of 9:30 p.m. Friday, Edgerton said he was expecting closer to 18 inches for Bergen County, but had a feeling more could be coming.

"My gut instinct, I think we're going up to 2-3 feet," Edgerton said.

Bergen could be facing blizzard conditions as early as noon Friday, he said.

Edgerton studies the European and Canadian weather models to make his forecasts, which he says are generally more accurate than the American models because they use higher-definition data and consider 51 different "tweaks."

The European models predicted this storm a week or longer ago, according to Edgerton.

"I would say it's a safe bet that we're going to get a significant winter storm," Edgerton said

According to the National Weather Service, snowfall could begin as early as 3am Friday morning resulting in under one inch. The storm would continue throughout the day alternating between rain and snow on Friday before settling into just snow late Friday night into Saturday morning for approximately five to nine inches in Oradell and between four and eight inches in River Edge.

The Weather Channel has now named the storm, calling it "Winter Storm Nemo."

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