Despite a warming climate, snowfall in NJ has gone up in the last 50 years

New Jersey has seen a lack of snow this winter, but long-term trends point to the opposite for the Garden State.

News 12 Staff

Feb 18, 2020, 9:24 PM

Updated 1,620 days ago

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New Jersey has seen a lack of snow this winter, but long-term trends point to the opposite for the Garden State.
While this winter season has seen the least amount of snow in recent times, new data from Climate Central in Princeton shows that the state has actually experienced a big increase in snowfall over the last 50 years. The report even says some of the largest storms in the area have happened within the last decade.
"This is a big thing, not just in New Jersey, but throughout the Northeast corridor,” says Climate Central Meteorologist Sean Sublette. “From D.C., all the way up to Boston, some of the largest individual snowstorms have been in the last 10 to 15 years."
In Newark, the increase is nearly 10 inches per season since 1970. In Atlantic City, the increase is just over 8 inches.
"One of the reasons we've seen the increase is because it is a tiny bit warmer,” says Sublette. “We have the Atlantic Ocean so close by. Both those things allow more moisture into the atmosphere, when the temperature is still below freezing."
Even though New Jersey is seeing an overall increase in snowfall, southern areas of the country have seen a substantial decrease.
"Those places that barely got much snow in the first place are trending a lot lower, almost to nothing,” says Sublette.
As for the low snow levels for New Jersey this winter, Sublette says it’s because there just hasn’t been the right storm track yet.


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