March 2020 had the potential to come in like a lion, with two storm systems heading toward New Jersey this Friday that could merge into one big one.

But for snow lovers in the Garden State, a big blast of snow just doesn’t seem to be in the cards this winter.

Forecasters say the two separate waves of low pressure will likely merge into a strong coastal storm — but it will happen far away from New Jersey. The end result: A potentially hefty snowstorm for places like Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in Canada — and just some rain and perhaps a light coating of snow in northwestern sections of New Jersey.

“It looks more like a nuisance event rather than an all-out snow situation for New Jersey,” said Mike Mihalik, a meteorologist at the WeatherWorks forecasting company, based in Warren County. “I don’t see this as being a major storm by any stretch of the imagination.”

What New Jersey is likely to see Friday are occasional rain showers in the afternoon, with temperatures hovering in the 40s, Mihalik said. As temperatures begin to drop later in the day and Friday night, some wet snow could mix in, mainly in high-elevation areas north of Interstate 78.

Those parts of the state could get a light coating of snow overnight Friday into early Saturday morning, Mihalik said, “so there could be a couple of slick spots out there.”

But for most of New Jersey, it’s looking like a batch of cold rain showers.

Nothing new for this low-snow winter, which currently ranks as the third least-snowy season ever recorded in the Garden State — with reliable records going all the way back to the late 1800s. The other snow duds were 1972-1973, when only 4 inches of snow fell the entire season, and 1918-1919, with 4.2 inches of snow.

This is the early snow forecast for northwestern sections of New Jersey from late Friday to early Saturday.National Weather Service

Storms merging

Forecasters from WeatherWorks and the National Weather Service say they are keeping an eye on the two storm systems that are brewing, but expect only minimal impacts on New Jersey.

One is a weak “clipper system” from the Great Lakes region that is expected to move across Pennsylvania and into New Jersey on Friday. The other is a larger low-pressure system moving from the south-central United States and expected to become a coastal storm off the southeast U.S. coast.

While some forecasters feared the two systems would merge — a process meteorologists call phasing — close to the Mid-Atlantic coast, most now believe the phasing will occur far offshore as the storm heads up to eastern Canada.

“It doesn’t look like that much of a big deal for us at this point,” said Mike Gorse, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s regional forecast office in New Jersey.

For now, the weather service is calling for just a 40% to 50% chance of a dusting of snow — less than 1 inch — in Morris, Passaic, Sussex and Warren counties late Friday into early Saturday morning. Other parts of northern and central New Jersey will likely see light rain, with some snow mixing in at times, overnight Friday. But no snow accumulations are expected.

So, it appears our low-snow trend keeps rolling along as we inch closer to March 19, the first official day of spring.

This is the latest snow forecast for northeastern sections of New Jersey from late Friday to early Saturday.National Weather Service

Current weather radar

Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LensReality or like him on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.