N.J. weather: Nor'easter threat could ruin upcoming Halloween weekend

By Len Melisurgo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

If you plan to go pumpkin picking or apple picking on the pre-Halloween weekend, pay close attention to the weather forecast. Your weekend could get spoiled by a coastal storm that has the potential of dumping heavy rain and bringing gusty winds to the New Jersey region.

But don’t change your plans just yet. Forecasters say there’s a chance the storm might not even develop, or it could develop and move out to sea without pelting us with heavy rain.

“It could happen, but obviously, nothing has even formed yet,” said Alex Staarmann, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s regional forecast office in Mount Holly, which oversees most of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and parts of Maryland. “It’s going to depend a lot on the evolution of the hurricane that’s about to make landfall in Mexico.”

Tracking Hurricane Willa

The storm that Staarmann is referring to is Hurricane Willa, a monster Category 5 hurricane that is expected to make landfall Tuesday in western Mexico. As of late Monday morning, Willa was packing maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, which is capable of causing catastrophic damage to structures in its path.

The National Hurricane Center expects the hurricane to hit Mexico's Pacific coast  as a major hurricane — Category 3, 4 or 5 — sometime Tuesday afternoon or Tuesday evening, then weaken to a tropical depression as it moves towards the northern Gulf coast of Texas.

“This storm, or a new storm born from its moisture, may make a northward turn along the Atlantic coast this weekend as a potential nor'easter," said Evan Duffey, a meteorologist at AccuWeather.