The National Weather Service today issued a winter weather advisory for Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks, Warren and Hunterdon counties.
One of the giant oak trees in the Oak Grove Memorial Garden in Easton's Upper Hackett Park remains on the ground today following last week's Superstorm Sandy. The trees are dedicated to the memory of the soldiers and sailors from Easton who died in World War I. Each bears a stone with a name and a flag at its base. Trees have come down in the past and were replaced.
The National Weather Service said today “forecast confidence is lower than average” for a nor’easter slated to reach the region Wednesday.
But after forecast models veered toward relief that the storm might not hit as hard as feared, the bottom line remained: High winds are expected across New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania, including Hunterdon and Bucks counties, with rain and snow forecast to spread into the Lehigh Valley.
Snow accumulations of 1 to 2 inches are forecast north and west of Philadelphia, the National Weather Service at Mount Holly, N.J., said. Temperatures are forecast to rise to the mid- to upper-30s Wednesday, so any daytime accumulation will be mostly limited to grassy areas; treated roads are expected to remain ice-free as temperatures drop toward freezing Wednesday night.
A winter weather advisory announced this afternoon by the weather service is in effect from 6 a.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday for a region encompassing Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks, Warren and Hunterdon counties.
The threat remains for “renewed power outages” under a wind advisory in effect for an area that includes Hunterdon and Bucks counties. The advisory issued this afternoon was downgraded from a high wind watch released Monday by the weather service. Gusts of 55 to 65 mph are likely, the weather service warned.
Power outages lingering from last week's Superstorm Sandy continued today to be a bigger problem in New Jersey than Pennsylvania.
Gov. Chris Christie said he was neutral so far about the performance of New Jersey utilities in restoring power but warned they would face “Hurricane Chris” by week’s end if electricity wasn’t returned to everyone.
Just over 500,000 electric customers remained without power early this afternoon across New Jersey, down from more than 2.7 million at the peak. The governor said he was expecting the number to be halved to about a quarter-million by day’s end.
“Am I happy? I’m not angry; you’ll know when I’m angry,” Christie said of the utility companies’ progress. “Hurricane Chris may come by the end of the week if they’re not careful.”
Jersey Central Power & Light late this afternoon reported power restored to 67 percent of 55,023 customers affected in Hunterdon County and 76 percent of 47,184 in Warren County.
Met-Ed, a sister utility also owned by FirstEnergy Corp., reported power restored to 74 percent of 6,467 customers affected in Bucks County. In Northampton County, 95 percent of Met-Ed’s 59,245 affected customers had power back, and in Lehigh County just three outages remained out of 3,520 affected.
PPL Electric Utilities Corp. reported 320 outages remaining in Lehigh County, where 129,590 customers were affected, and 29 in Northampton County, which had 77,694 customers affected.