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]

NJ.COM County By County Photos

News12 Multimedia Photos

John Henry's Blizzard Photos

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