Roads, schools, NJ Transit — Friday’s essential snow information

A fast-moving storm is on track to bring 4-6 inches of snow to Central and South Jersey during the Friday morning commute.

Bands of moderate snow developed around 3 a.m., which New Jersey 101.5 Chief Meteorologist Dan Zarrow expected to last until 7 a.m. and tapering off by 10 a.m.

"My 2-4-inch contour in northeast NJ might be a bit too low; 4-6-inches still looks good Central and South; 6-plus inches possible depending on how stubborn the heavy snow bands are," Zarrow said.

Many school districts across the state that initially announced they would delay the start of classes switched to a full closure around 5 a.m. after officials assessed the roads. Click here for our New Jersey school closings list.

Slow going on NJ highways

Snow-covered roads could be to blame in part for several morning early serious crashes that shut down highways.

A crash between two tractor-trailers closed the southbound lanes of Route 287 between Exit 21 for Route 78 and Exit 17 for Routes 202/206.

Route 18 in New Brunswick was closed after a tractor-trailer that struck the median on the Lynch Bridge.

A number of spinouts were also reported on Route 78 by New Jersey Fast Traffic.

A state of emergency was declared by Gov. Phil Murphy allowing resources to be deployed statewide during the storm as needed.

“Residents should stay off the roads, remain vigilant, and follow all safety protocols," Murphy said.

STATE OFFICES

State offices will open at 11 a.m., including the MVC which canceled all appointments prior to 11:30 a.m.

HIGHWAYS

A commercial vehicle travel restriction for all tractor-trailers, empty straight CDL-weighted trucks, passenger vehicles pulling trailers, recreational vehicles and motorcycles on I-78, I-80, I-195, I-280, I-187, I-295 and Route 440. The New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway are not affected.

TRAINS/BUSES

• NJ Transit - Trains, buses and light rail as operating as normal as long as conditions allow. Cross honoring is in effect system wide
• PATH - Operating on a normal schedule
• PATCO - Operating on a snow schedule
• SEPTA - Operating on a normal schedule

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=604700837491732

POWER

• JCP&L, PSE&G, Atlantic City Electric and Rockland & Orange are not reporting any major outages.

AIRPORTS

• 122 flights originating at Newark Liberty, 187 from LaGuardia, 127 from JFK and 50 from Philadelphia  are canceled today as of 5:30 a.m., according to FlightAware.com

CORONAVIRUS TESTING/VACCINATION CENTERS

• Camden County: Testing site at 2600 Mt. Ephraim Avenue in Camden City will be closed. The Camden County Health Hub will be open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday by appointment only.

In other news in New Jersey, a ShopRite employee in Clark is recovering after police say a co-worker repeatedly plunged a long deli knife at least 13 times into her torso. She's been charged with attempted murder.

Lawmakers have approved extending Gov. Murphy's pandemic emergency powers for 45 days.

And Steve Trevelise listeners gave us a list of roads you should avoid whenever it snows.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ