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New Jersey will not receive several feet of snow this weekend.

(Facebook)

It was the blizzard the internet built.

The phones of meteorologists and emergency officials across New Jersey have been ringing off the hook all week, clogged with frantic callers wondering how the state is going to handle the massive winter storm they heard is going to hit the Garden State this weekend.

But no blizzard ever existed, nor is one forecast to form.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Rob Reale, a meteorologist at WeatherWorks, a Hackettstown-based forecasting firm. “Despite the storms we’ve had this week, everybody’s been focusing on Sunday, which is mind blowing in a way. What we’re realistically looking at is a couple of unorganized waves moving through this weekend which could produce a couple periods of light snow.”

Despite the fact such a storm has not shown up in any official forecasts, a fever-pitch of panic has persisted throughout the week. It reached a point where the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly office, who typically would not address an internet rumor, issued a strongly worded statement in a forecast briefing Wednesday night.

"It was the antithesis of public service when the 30-inch snowstorm graphic was posted and hyped last week. It continues to be the antithesis of public service," it read, before later switching to bold face type. “It was nonsense then; it’s nonsense now.”

Is there a chance of snow this weekend? Yes, forecasters say. And if the storm strengthens more than expected it could be disruptive, though exact totals remain uncertain. But a blizzard dropping historic snow across the Garden State has never entered the realm of possibility.

“It’s beyond frustrating,” said Steven DiMartino, owner of Freehold-based NY NJ PA Weather. “You have to foster young people who are interested in atmospheric meteorology because it’s good for the science. But at the same time you can’t have people running around creating hysteria.”

“There is absolutely no chance, at all, that this pattern supports a storm like that.”

The exact origin of the rumor is unclear, but it began sometime last week when a weather map showing 30-plus inches of accumulated snow across much of New Jersey began appearing on social media. Accompanying the photo were often frenzied comments about a monster blizzard headed to the Garden State this weekend.

But the image wasn’t what it appeared, nor was it ever valid.

The image was a printout of an experimental version of the well-respected European forecast model. But it wasn’t showing the impacts from a single storm, it was showing how much snow would accumulate over a 10-day period ending this weekend if no other type of precipitation fell.

Unfortunately, the truth was quickly lost with the image’s viral spread.

"One of the big concerns for me is does the bad information out-duel the good," said Frank Farley, a psychology professor at Temple University."That's an old truth, if you repeat something enough times, people will believe it."

Farley said he expects this to be an issue that doesn't go away anytime soon, because of the ease of impacting such vast audiences.

"You've kind of got the world at your fingertips," he said. "It’s not unlike what you see with arson. Arsonists often hang around the scene to watch it unfold ... Here, it could be a way for someone to relieve the boredom of (someone's) life. It's a thrill."

Despite the efforts of forecasters and emergency officials to debunk the claim this week, it has persisted. Several authorities told The Star-Ledger that they were still receiving many calls about the mythical storm throughout the week, up to and including Thursday.

“This has gotten so embedded in the popular mindset. It’s a disappointment,” said Gary Szatkowski, chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Mount Holly office. “There certainly could be a storm that’ll produce some snow for folks (this weekend), but right now there’s nothing to indicate that we’re looking at anything of mammoth proportions.”

Forecasters and emergency officials say the rise of social media and the abundance of freely available weather data have been boons to the industry and the science of meteorology, but also allow for the explosive spread of misinformation.

"The situation that occurred this past week is a great example of the information versus misinformation problem we contend with on a regular basis as emergency managers," said Douglas Vornlocker, director of the Somerset County Office of Emergency Management. "We often look to subject matter experts like meteorologists to provide us that information. It’s a process that can’t be rushed and citizens need to be aware that making important decisions based on a post can be dangerous."

Forecast model runs, which are increasingly being shared on social media, for example, are not gospel and moreover, are not officially sanctioned forecasts. There are several forecast models around the globe, each of which, several times a day, process a tremendous amount of information and issue their best guess of what the weather will be around the world in the coming days.

It’s not uncommon for a single model to issue four completely different forecasts in a single day and, while there have been incredible advances in accuracy in recent years, no model is reliable beyond seven days, much less 10.

Meteorology is a complex science, and data in the wrong hands can be a dangerous thing, DiMartino said.

“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that a lot of people are interested in this and that all this data is available,” he said. “But you can have all the data in the world and if you don’t know how read it, you can create a lot of confusion.”

Mary Goepfert, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, which was also forced to address the rumor on their Facebook page Wednesday, said it’s important for the general public to vet the source of information they may see on social media.

“There are a lot of good hobbyists and amateurs out there but you have to be careful,” Goepfert said. “If you are going to spread a rumor, consider what the source is for that.”

The forecast for this weekend could still change. But the best guess right now? Periods of light snow on Saturday and/or Sunday with accumulations of 1 to 3 inches.

“It’s a long way from 1 to 3 inches to some of the crazy numbers the Internet has been tossing around,” Szatkowski said on his Twitter feed today.