Blizzard Warning up for the Jersey Shore

The National Weather Service has issued a Blizzard Warning for the Jersey Shore.

The warning is in effect from 9 p.m. Wednesday through 7 p.m. Thursday.

A blizzard is a storm with considerable falling or blowing snow and winds in excess of 35 mph and visibilities of less than 1/4 mile for at least 3 hours, according to the National Weather Service.

The service expects those conditions during the warning period, advising of “very dangerous to impossible travel, including during the morning commute on Thursday.”

From the bulletin: “Winds gusting as high as 50 mph will cause whiteout conditions in blowing snow. Significant drifting of the snow is likely. Scattered power outages could develop Thursday and Friday which would force considerable hardship where heat would not be available.”

By the time snow ends on early Thursday evening, the National Weather Service expects eight to 12 inches of snow at the Shore.

Then, forecasters are predicting “brutally cold” conditions Thursday night until Saturday night due to gusty northwest winds blowing in from Canada.

“I cannot stress enough how high-impact this stretch of cold might be,” forecasters from the Mount Holly, NJ National Weather Service office wrote Wednesday morning. “Given the duration of the cold preceding this period, the added factor of windy conditions for a lengthy period during this period, and the anomalous nature of the cold that is forecast — societal impacts will probably be significant.”

The service advises the public to take the frigid outbreak — at the Shore, featuring high temperatures in the teens, lows in the single digits, and wind chills possibly to around negative 10 degrees — seriously.

“Have safety plans in place including a stash of warm clothes in the car in case of a rural location break down and certainly plenty of fuel for well maintained home and facility heating systems,” the forecasters wrote Wednesday morning.