UPDATE
1/3/25: Good afternoon readers. Our February 2024 article about “more normal” snowfall totals in Burlington County had something going for it: it was true at the time. But while there were 2 inches of snow before Christmas, our 2024 total was about 9 inches or 1/3 of the “average” [see map below]. Two years of anomalously low snowfall does not make a pattern, but it did come in the context of an 11/13/24 “drought warning”. As 2025 dawns, those drought conditions have eased slightly, but the southern part of New Jersey is still in “extreme drought”. We will monitor precipitation through 2025.
What follows is the February article.
2023 was a record setting year for snow fall. According to Dr. David A. Robinson, NJ State Climatologist, the “southern” sector of the Garden State, which includes Mount Holly, experienced the least amount of snowfall ever recorded. For the state wide average, we had 4.8 inches, tying the third least snowy winter in New Jersey history.
To those of you who track global temperature news, this is probably not a surprise. NOAA Chief Scientist Dr. Sarah Kapnick commented “Not only was 2023 the warmest year in NOAA’s 174-year climate record — it was the warmest by far”. Which brings to mind the choking forest fire smoke that drifted across New Jersey from Canadian blazes that were brought on by “abnormally warm temperatures”.
But so far in 2024, January and February snowfalls have dropped about 7 inches in the Mount Holly area. This eclipses the entire 2023 snowfall and promises to put us back on track to receive more normal snowfall for Burlington County which averages about 25 inches annually*.
The Rutgers University climate publication “NJ Climate Overview” states that New Jersey has “distinct climate regions”. The northern, higher elevations have annual average snowfalls of 40 to 50 inches, while the extreme south logs snowfall of around 10-15 inches. Mount Holly’s position is proximate to a weather inflection line. Generally, the more significant snowfall impacts will track just north of Trenton in a SW to NE path. This just happened on February 13, 2024 when a storm gave Sussex County more than a foot of snow while giving Burlington county about 4 inches.
*See the Burlington County Public Safety Department’s 2019 Hazard Mitigation Plan which provides a winter weather hazards map. Mount Holly area gets about an annual average of 25 inches of snowfall. https://co.burlington.nj.us/462/All-Hazards-Mitigation-Plan