40 Weather-Related Deaths So Far This Winter In NJ: What To Know

A winter that has been coldest and snowiest in several years across New Jersey has also been a deadly one, with at least 40 people dying as a result of the weather, state officials said Tuesday.

The total number of deaths spans Jan. 24 through Wednesday, said Claudia Trani-Melgar, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health.

That is 20 additional deaths linked to the extreme cold and snow since Feb. 9, when the health department said 20 people had died as a result of the weather.

Many of the deaths happened in the northern counties in the state, she said, and those who died ranged in age from 25 to 9o years old.

"Many of these deaths are of individuals found outside (i.e., in a vehicle, outside a home, in an unheated porch, etc.), while few are related to slips and falls, and a couple that involve substance use," Trani-Melgar said.

State officials have not released the identities of those who have died or specifics on which towns where the deaths happened.

One known death was of a 67-year-old Verona man who died while shoveling snow during the heavy snow and ice storm on Jan. 25.

The cold snap of the last week of January into February was "one of the more persistent cold episodes in recent years," according to the state climatologist David Robinson with the weather center at Rutgers University, and ranked as the coldest since 2014, with the average for the month 3.7 degrees colder than normal.

The Jan. 25 snowstorm brought as much as 17 inches to the state, according to the National Weather Service.

Snowfall across New Jersey in January averaged 14.3 inches, 7.1 inches more than normal and was the 17th snowiest January of the last 132 years, Robinson said.

Robinson has not shared February's weather summary yet, but temperatures stayed below freezing for much of the month, with it warming just enough to melt most of the January snow before the blizzard dropped nearly 30 inches in some parts of New Jersey on Feb. 22-23.

Trani-Melgar said the number of deaths is still subject to change pending final cause and manner of death determinations by forensic pathologists.

The health department continues to urge New Jersey residents who lack shelter to call 211 or check nj211.org/njcodeblue for information about Code Blue shelters when temperatures drop below freezing and storms move in.

"We know these extreme temperatures can be especially hard and even dangerous and want all New Jersey residents to know there are safe places to go," the health department said.

The extreme cold appears to be easing at last, with temperatures expected to be in the mid-50s and 60s by the weekend.

Note: This article has been updated to reflect new information provided by the state Department of Health on Thursday, March 5.