Roads, NJ Transit, power — Essential snow info for March 7

TRENTON — New Jersey is ready to weather the late winter storm that will anywhere from three to 12 inches of snow across the state.

Meteorologist Dan Zarrow said the snowfall started off slow but will be very intense today with "thundersnow" a good possibility.

"Between about 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday, you don't want to be on the road. Models suggest some truly intense mesoscale snow bands will just pour snow out of the sky. Snowfall rates may exceed 3 inches per hour," Zarrow said.

Most school districts in New Jersey made the call on Wednesday to cancel classes or to dismiss early. Schools along the shore where less snow was expected waited until Wednesday morning to make their decision.

Gov. Phil Murphy closed all state offices for Wednesday with only essential personnel required to come into work.

NJ Transit

• NJ Transit is on a Severe Weather Schedule Level 1 limited weekday rail schedule.  "We want to give our customers the opportunity to have a clear picture of just how much service we can offer and, more importantly, when their next train is scheduled," NJ Transit spokesman Jim Smith said when the severe weather plan was announced.

ROADS

• Speed is lowered to 45 mph on Garden State Parkway between Tinton Falls and the NY State line and the NJ Turnpike between the Delaware Memorial Bridge and the Garden State Parkway.
• "If you see crews working, whether they're spreaders or plows give plenty of space for them to work. Stay back, allow them to do their job to get things clear," NJ Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Schapiro said.

POWER

• JCP&L continues its restoration efforts while conditions allow from last Frday's nor'easter joining PSE&G and Atlantic City Electric watching for new outages "Unfortunately, the combination of strong winds and heavy snow will likely cause additional power outages." Zarrow said.
• PSE&G and Atlantic City Electric show a scattering of outages on their respective outage maps

AIRPORTS

• More than 500 flights in-and-out of Newark Liberty Airport have been cancelled, according to FlightAware.com's Sara Orsi. It's the most in the country, accounting for 43 per cent of the 1,938 flights cancelled across the country today.
  "Heavy snow is expected to accumulate at Philadelphia, Boston, LaGuardia and Kennedy and could also impact diversion airports throughout the region. Airlines are allowing fee-free changes (and refunds in some cases) for itineraries potentially impacted by the storm," Orsi said.