NJ Weather: When Does the Snow Stop? Major winter storm winds early as the bitter cold lingers. Latest updates.

The first major snowstorm of the year in New Jersey will come to a halt early Thursday, with accumulations expected to end before daybreak and gusts of wind calming more than 100 mph along the Jersey Shore.

While final snow totals aren’t expected until later Thursday, parts of Sussex and Warren counties had reached or approached 25 inches of snow last Wednesday and early this morning, according to the National Weather Service. Numerous towns in Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Morris had registered more than six inches by the end of Wednesday, and several more inches were expected.

Winter weather warnings and advisories are still several hours away, although radar shows that the snow in New Jersey should be done by 7 a.m.

Gov. Phil Murphy has scheduled a 9:00 am briefing to provide updates on the storm.

Thursday will be a cold day for snow removal or fun in the snow. Temperatures are mainly in the 1920s just before 6 a.m. and won’t rise much above freezing this afternoon on a mostly cloudy day.

Snow on grass and other surfaces that are not plowed will likely linger for a few days before gradually melting as temperatures will be in the 30s on Friday and Saturday under sunny skies. Sunday highlights will hit the low 40s on another dry day. The nightly lows for the next two nights will be in the teenage years, which may lead to some concern about roads freezing again from the melting snow.

The state is likely to escape the storm without widespread power outage issues. As of 6 a.m., fewer than 4,000 homes and businesses were groping in the dark outside the state’s more than 4.3 million utilities. The outage peak reached approximately 14,000 customers on Wednesday around 9:30 PM.

All New Jersey Transit trains and the Newark and Hudson-Bergen Light Rail service will remain suspended from 5:45 AM. Buses serving the Port Authority in New York City also don’t run early on Thursdays. Nor are there any buses serving North and Central Jersey.

According to FlightAware.com, 80 flights from Newark Liberty International Airport have already been canceled as of 5:45 am – 23% of the total departures from the airport. John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York City have registered 60 and 55 cancellations, while there are 13 at Philadelphia International Airport.

The speed limit on the New Jersey Turnpike has been lowered to 35 mph north of Exit 6 and 45 mph south of Exit 6 while the crew is plowing and plowing.

There were numerous gusts of 50 mph along the Jersey Shore and northwestern New Jersey during the storm with two of at least 60. The highest was 62 at Mantoloking, just before 10:30 pm, according to the weather service. A gust of 60 mph was recorded near Beach Haven on Long Beach Island at approximately 9:30 PM

The highest preliminary snowfall totals were 10.6 inches in Belvidere and 9.6 in the Pelletown section of Frankford.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JGoldmanNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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