Forecasters are keeping a close eye on yet another potential March coastal storm, which would be the fourth one to affect the New Jersey region since early this month.
Here we go again...
We're less than a week away from the official start of spring, we got clobbered by two big coastal storms in six days and we were brushed by a third coastal storm Monday night into early Tuesday.
And now there's talk about a fourth storm system setting its sights on the East coast?
If you're hoping it's an early April Fool's Day joke, it's not. Forecasters say there's a potential for a storm system to develop early next week and deliver more snow -- or a mix of rain and snow -- to the New Jersey region.
Just like the last three storms that have pestered the Garden State since early March, forecasters say there's a high degree of uncertainty over the latest storm system because it's more than five days away from arriving and too many atmospheric factors need to play out.
If this one does threaten our region, it would likely be sometime late Monday or Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service's regional forecast office in New Jersey.
Might as well get prepared for Nor'easter Number 4 next Tuesday, from the Mid-Atlantic to New England. Details about rain/snow uncertain but winter continues until the very end! pic.twitter.com/TmKtMLpAKO
-- Ryan Maue | weather.us (@RyanMaue) March 14, 2018
Lance Franck, a weather service meteorologist, said residents should be aware of the potential for stormy weather next week, but scores of questions need to be resolved between now and then.
"There is another storm on the horizon, but the track, timing and intensity are uncertain," Franck said Wednesday afternoon. "The precipitation types and amounts are also uncertain."
Franck said surface maps from the U.S. Weather Prediction Center, an arm of the National Weather Service, are projecting a storm system will move through the Ohio Valley region on Monday night and may redevelop off the Atlantic coast, near Delaware or Virginia, early Tuesday.
"In terms of where that redevelopment takes place, it's still uncertain," he noted. "And how much cold air will be in place north of that is uncertain."
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Rob Reale, a meteorologist at the WeatherWorks forecasting company in Warren County, agrees too many wildcards are on the table at this time to make a solid prediction about next week's storm.
Reale is confident a storm will approach the New Jersey region next week, but he believes it will be "more of a classic west-to-east type of system" and likely not a powerful coastal storm like the previous string of storms that hit us in March.
Still to be determined, he said, are how the storm sets up, whether it will have coastal characteristics, and whether temperatures will be cold enough to support all snow, all rain, or a mix of snow and rain.
As a forecaster from the National Weather Service said four days before the most recent coastal storm -- the one that ended up giving New Jersey a glancing blow and parts of New England a nasty blizzard -- stay tuned.
Old Man Winter might not be finished with us just yet.
Three powerful nor'easters made for an insane March in the Northeast. pic.twitter.com/oAmSZiAWTC
-- Dakota Smith (@weatherdak) March 14, 2018
Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LensReality or like him on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.