How Warren plows, explained the week a statewide state of emergency hit

Three days before the largest storm in years, Administrator Mark Krane laid out the township's snow operation at the January 22 Township Committee meeting. It is the clearest public description of how Warren handles snow, and it is worth having on hand before the next one.

The operating rules

The Department of Public Works data Krane relayed comes down to four numbers.

More than 345 municipal roads are the township's responsibility. Those are covered by 12 salting routes and 18 plow routes. The difference in route count is the difference in the work. Salting is one pass. Plowing is not.

The threshold is 2.5 inches. Under that, crews salt. Over it, they plow.

Full operations take roughly 6 to 8 hours after a storm ends, and that is the number worth internalizing. The clock starts when the snow stops, not when it starts. If a storm ends at 4 a.m., a residential cul de sac at the end of a plow route may not be clear until late morning. That is the design of the system rather than a failure of it.

What is not a township road

The figure Krane gave is more than 345 municipal roads, and municipal is the operative word. Warren's road network is layered. Several of the roads people drive most, including the county routes and Interstate 78, are not township responsibility, which is why conditions can differ sharply between the street you live on and the road you turn onto.

If a county or state road is bad, the township is not the agency to call.

The state of emergency

On January 23, 2026, Governor Sherrill declared a State of Emergency for all 21 New Jersey counties through Executive Order No. 8. It took effect at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 24. Commercial vehicle restrictions on specified interstates and state routes began at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, January 25.

Forecasts at the time of the declaration called for at least 12 inches statewide with wind gusts to 30 mph.

What the storm did

The National Weather Service office in New York recorded the January 25 to 26 storm as producing 12 to 17 inches inland, with peak snowfall rates of 1 to 3 inches per hour. The office described it as the largest storm for much of the area since January 31 to February 2, 2021.

Peak rates matter more than totals for plowing. At 1 to 3 inches an hour, a plow route that took two hours to run can be substantially covered again by the time the truck finishes it. That is why the 6 to 8 hour window is measured from the end of the storm.

The New Jersey State Climatologist's January 2026 report lists 12.1 inches at Belle Mead in Somerset County.

What closed

The Warren Township Planning Board meeting scheduled for Monday, January 26 was cancelled by public notice, with the next meeting tentatively set for February 11. The cancellation notice does not state a reason.

The timing is obvious enough that most people will draw the same conclusion, but the notice itself does not say so, and I am reporting what the notice says.

Practical notes for the next storm

A few things follow directly from the operating numbers above.

Do not shovel driveway snow into the street. It gets pushed back, and on a route covering many roads, the truck is not coming back a second time for you.

Move cars off the street where you can. A plow route is measured in a pass, and a parked car turns one pass into a partial one.

Expect the main collectors before the cul de sacs. With 18 plow routes covering 345-plus roads, sequencing is the whole job.

If a specific hazard exists, such as a downed line or a blocked hydrant, that is a call to the police department rather than a general complaint about plowing. Warren Township Police push closure and hazard notices through Nixle, and that feed is consistently faster than any other channel during an active storm.