New York Local News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― We may only be a month into fall, but winter has come early this year, bringing a surprise snowfall to parts of central New Jersey and northern New York. The rare October event may have been a sight to remember, but it caused numerous traffic headaches and power outages that made it a day to forget.

A light snowfall hit Trenton and other areas of the state around midmorning, forcing transportation officials to send out salt trucks along the Garden State Parkway, and on the New Jersey Turnpike from exits 8 to 11.

Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando said the trucks were doing spot salting on bridge decks first.

"It looked like a mini-blizard in October," Orlando said. "We're salting the roads and we haven't even gone trick or treating yet."

For the meantime, speed limits on the Parkway and Turnpike are restricted to 50 mph, Orlando said.

By late afternoon, more than 60,000 in New Jersey were reportedly without power.

The October surprise snowstorm caused numerous traffic headaches in New York's northern suburbs too. In Sullivan County, heavy snow brought down a number of tree limbs and caused scattered power outages.

"It's very slippery. I got back this morning, the roads were terrible. They're very slippery, drive with care!" said Monticello resident Leo Cecil. "It's heavy, it's dangerous, trees are coming down, power outages – not nice."

In Port Jervis, the early snow added a wintry touch to Halloween decorations.

"It's early! I'm not used to having snow until like December," said Orange County resident Judy Clark.

Ed Turner rushed this morning to get his snow removal rig ready. He says he's never had to use his plow in October before.

"I don't know what's going on here. It's something," he said.

Snow totals were widely scattered, with parts of Sullivan County under a heavy blanket of white.

Not far away in Orange County, there was just a dusting on Route 42 in Sparrow Bush,a nd traffic was moving well.

But just a couple miles away on Interstate 84, it was a mess. Traffic on the eastbound lanes came to a dead stop, after a couple of big rigs a mile up the road jackknifed in the wet snow.

Not everyone minded the snow, but no one seemed to like the traffic problems. "It's all right, I don't mind the snow at all," said Rob Horvath, who was stuck in the I-84 backup. "I hate being stuck in traffic."

Meanwhile, further south in New York City, there were no flakes to be found, but there was plenty of wind and rain to spoil the day.

By mid-morning the rain had slowed to a drizzle in Queens, but the remnants of an earlier downpour were still abundant. Like waves on a beach, water crashed along the sides of 147th Avenue as car after car after car sped through submerged intersections.

In Atlantic Beach, cars appeared to float on the roads that had morphed into ponds.

In Brookville, road conditions were even worse. With over a foot of water on Brookville Boulevard and traffic piling up, drivers say they had no choice but to drive into the water, and of course, many ended up getting stuck.

"Everywhere was flooded, there was no turning back so basically everybody had no choice but, you know, move forward," said Ade Akintide of Far Rockaway.

The decision proved to be a bad one for motorist Brendan Heley, whose car wound up becoming stuck in the flood.

"I didn't realize how deep it was and I killed my engine," he said.

But Heley wasn't the only one. Many drivers that decided to take their chances driving down flooded roads ended up paying the price.

"It is a little frustrating but, it happens. Just have to wait for tow truck to take your car to mechanic," said motorist David Maraj.

On, North Conduit Avenue, Department of Environmental Protectionworkers were busy pumping water off the street and clearing the sewer of leaves as they tried to hold back the flooding from a storm that seemed like it would never end.

CBS 2 Meteorologist John Elliot says the conditions are reminiscent of a March day, with temperatures typical of a December day. Temperatures shouldn't exceed a high of 45 degrees, with a low of 36 in the late evening hours.

The howling winds will continue though the evening. On the bright side, however, the rains will have ended. But it will be quite chilly, with temps dipping into the mid 30s in the city by day break on Wednesday.

The coastal storm will be centered well to our north by Wednesday morning, but the tri-state will still experience gusty winds. As the coldest air mass of the season continues to settle in we'll have a tough time getting out of the 40s tomorrow.

A wind advisory remains in effect in many parts of the tri-state, where forecasters are predicting gusts up to 45 mph.

Forecasters say an offshore storm will whip up winds to 30 to 40 mph, with gusts to 60 possible. That could down tree limbs and utility lines.

A winter weather advisory also remains in effect until 4 a.m. for Sussex County, where up to 3 inches of snow are possible.

Tuesday warnings and advisories:

Wind Advisory in CT - Northern Fairfield , Northern Middlesex , Northern New Haven , Northern New London , Southern Fairfield , Southern Middlesex , Southern New Haven , Southern New London

Wind Advisory in NJ - Bergen , Eastern Passaic , Essex , Hudson , Hunterdon , Mercer , Morris , Northwestern Burlington , Somerset , Sussex , Union , Warren , Western Passaic

High Wind Warning in NJ - Coastal Ocean , Eastern Monmouth , Middlesex , Ocean , Southeastern Burlington , Western Monmouth

Winter Weather Advisory in NJ - Sussex

Wind Advisory - Bronx , Eastern Columbia , Eastern Dutchess , Eastern Ulster , Kings (Brooklyn) , Nassau , New York (Manhattan) , Northeast Suffolk , Northern Westchester , Northwest Suffolk , Orange , Putnam , Queens , Richmond (Staten Is.) , Rockland , Southeast Suffolk , Southern Westchester , Southwest Suffolk , Western Dutchess

Winter Storm Warning - Delaware , Western Ulster

Winter Weather Advisory - Sullivan

CBS 2's Tony Aiello, Deborah Garcia, Christine Sloan contributed to this report.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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