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A fast-moving winter storm system is expected to dump heavy snow on parts of New Jersey Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday night.

(AccuWeather.com)

UPDATE:

The winter storm watch that was issued this morning has been elevated to a winter storm warning for most of New Jersey, effective from 10 a.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Dust off the shovel and plan to bundle up on Tuesday. An intensifying low pressure system is expected to blanket the region with as much as a foot of snow in some parts of the state.

A winter storm watch was issued for most of New Jersey this morning, but this afternoon the watch was upgraded to a warning for all but the northwestern corner of New Jersey, where a winter weather advisory was issued.

The heaviest snow will fall between the evening rush hour and midnight Tuesday, said meteorologist Mitchell Gaines, of the National Weather Service's Mount Holly station. While most of the state should see significant snowfall, the northern reaches of New Jersey may only get one to two inches because the system is going to hug the shoreline, Gaines said.

"This system is going to draw in moisture from the Atlantic and strengthen off the coast," said Gaines. “It initially looked like it was going to be a run-of-the-mill clipper system but over the past 48 hours, the trends indicate that it will be a much stronger system than we anticipated. We’re going to see strong winds on the back side of this storm so we’ll see blowing snow Tuesday night.”

That snow won’t melt anytime soon, as an Arctic air mass is waiting in the wings. Temperatures are expected to dive into the single digits on Wednesday morning. That icy bite will linger for the rest of the week, with daily highs in the 20’s.

On the bright side: this plunge won’t be quite as brutal as the shocker cold snap that hit two weeks ago and popularized the term “polar vortex.”

“The starting point for the cold air that we saw earlier this month was the North Pole,” said Gaines. “The cold air that’s coming in this week is based in the Canadian prairies so it won’t be as cold but the cold will be longer lasting. We might see some moderation on Saturday, with temperatures in the 30’s.”

That’s about as good as it’s going to get. Gaines said he doesn’t foresee any dramatic swings to record-breaking warmth on the horizon.

“It looks like the next couple of weeks are going to be on the colder side of the equation,” said Gaines.

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