Winter Storm Jonas
January 2016
Friday - 01/22/16 - The news
media pundits have been worrying about this storm most of the
week. Today it finally showed up on the East Orange radar so we
know it's real and it's headed our way for certain. We get our
weather reports from the East Orange weather station at 392 N. Maple Ave: http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/east-orange-nj/07017/weather-forecast/334535
By noon on Friday the storm began
to grow, stretching from North Carolina to Pennsylvania.
By 11 PM on Friday night, we saw
the first dusting of snow begin in East Orange.
Saturday 01/23/16 - It looks like
Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki in
Fayetteville, NC was spared the worst of the storm, but by now it
has been snowing, lightly but continuously, all night from
Delaware to Connecticut. We have about 2 inches accumulation on
the ground in East Orange. Time to break out the camera.
By 9:00 AM on Saturday, the gusty
winds had begun to blow the snow into drifts.
credit: NASA/Scott Kelly
This is what Astronaut Commander Scott Kelly
(originally from Orange, NJ), was seeing this morning at 5:00 AM
as he looked down on the East Coast from the International Space
Station.
At 5:00 PM this evening, the
mayor of East Orange declared a state of emergency
for the city, with a complete ban on
vehicle travel on any city streets except for emergency vehicles.
We have almost two feet of snow, but blown into drifts much
higher than that. The state of emergency is expected to continue
until noon tomorrow (01/24/16).
01/24/16 - 4:00 AM - And away it
goes! The early morning sky is dark blue and clear and the moon
is yellow bright and clear. Jonas is still heading north but at
least it's out of our neighborhood, leaving behind a "winter
wonderland" for the kids to enjoy before they head back to
school on Monday. Not everyone is happy, because now the
shoveling begins and the damages are assessed.
Please feel free to send
us your winter storm photos
for posting on this page. You don't have to be from East Orange
and the photos can show the beauty as well as the ugly of our
first real winter storm for 2016.
East Orange True News editor Jim Gerrish, [email protected]