WEATHER ALERT: A wind advisory has been issued from 10 p.m. tonight through 4 a.m. Thursday morning. Winds from the northwest will increase to 20-30mph and gusting from 35-45 mph. This type of consistent wind will blow around items on and around your property that aren’t secured. If the recycling cans go out tonight, make sure the lids are secured tightly lest you be cleaning up early in the morning before work and school.

Limbs and branches from older or dead trees could be blown down and sporadic power outages may occur. Also, be careful if you have a high-profile vehicle. The wind will make it difficult to handle/control. Please use extra caution.

A fascinating storm, meteorologically speaking, evolves over the next few days. For the first time in three months, generous rainfall is expected over the parched landscape.

Since the ground is so dry, it’s like concrete. It will take some time for that rainwater to absorb into the ground. So before that happens, it will roll right off and quickly fill streets. That water will collect leaves, branches and garbage and deposit it on our sewers and catch basins. These will quickly clog and water will quickly fill further out into our streets for localized flooding issues.

One to 2 inches of rain is a good start for a storm, but it won’t be a drought buster. We still need continuous days of consistent rain to put a dent in the drought.

This storm will loop around the area through late Friday. As this happens, colder air will begin to surge through the state. This instability will keep the threat of rain in the forecast through Friday.

The aforementioned cold air will also transition some rain in northwest New Jersey over to sporadic snow showers. If you live west of Interstate 287 and north of Interstate 78, the likelihood of accumulations is limited, but not off the table. Colder surfaces will likely see a sugar coating to a worst-case scenario of 1-2 inches. We will not have to shovel out from our first snow of the season.

I will caution that this heavyish wet snow will cling to branches and powerlines. As winds continue to gust frequently from 25 to 35 mph, outages could become commonplace.