Expect heavy snow but not blizzard in Lehigh Valley, northwest New Jersey, experts say

Snow is expected to begin accumulating around 1 p.m. Thursday and continue into Friday morning, according to weather reports.

A snowstorm headed toward the Lehigh Valley will likely fall short of becoming a blizzard locally, but meteorologists are expecting heavy snow to arrive Thursday evening and Friday morning.

The National Weather Service is putting out a winter storm warning for Lehigh, Northampton and Warren counties. The three counties under the warning could face 6 to 10 inches of snow and wind gusts ranging from 15 to 25 miles an hour, according to the weather service.

Snow is expected to start around 1 p.m. in the three counties, according to the service.

The same report placed Hunterdon County under a winter storm watch, saying it could see 3 to 7 inches of snow beginning around 2 p.m.

But New Jersey state climatologist David Robinson told NJ.com parts of the region will likely start seeing lighter, "nuisance snow" early in the morning.

The weather service is predicting heavier snowfalls further up the East Coast; the same storm could drop more than a foot of snow onto Boston.

Tony Gigi, a meteorologist with the Mount Holly, N.J., office of the weather service, said the storm is likely moving north too quickly to drop 10 inches or more on the Lehigh Valley. He expects the wind to complicate matters, however.

"It's as much about the wind and drifting as much as about the storm system itself," Gigi said.

Mike Mihalik, meteorologist with WeatherWorks out of Hackettstown, said his models show moisture over the Atlantic Ocean will energize the storm as it moves north. As a result, he expects Warren County to see 6 to 10 inches and communities out toward Allentown to see closer to 4 to 8 inches.