New Jersey Geography & Climate

New Jersey divides into four bands. The coastal plain covers the southern three-fifths — flat, sandy and low — fronted by a chain of barrier islands running most of the 130-mile shore, with bays and salt marsh behind them.

Inland of that sit the Pine Barrens, over a million acres of pitch pine and sandy soil, the largest area of open space on the mid-Atlantic seaboard and protected as the Pinelands National Reserve.

The Piedmont across the north is where most of the population lives, and the Highlands and Ridge and Valley in the northwest are genuinely hilly and wooded, rising to 1,803 feet at the state's high point.

The Delaware River forms the entire western boundary, cutting through the ridge at the Delaware Water Gap.

The state spans two climate zones: humid subtropical in the south, humid continental in the northwest, with a noticeable difference in winter between the two ends.

Summers are hot and humid inland; the shore stays several degrees cooler thanks to the sea breeze, which is most of the reason the resorts exist.

Winters are cold, with real snow in the northwest and much less at the shore. Nor'easters are the main winter event and can cause serious coastal flooding.

Hurricanes and tropical storms are a genuine risk from August to October. Sandy in 2012 remains the benchmark, and the coast has been rebuilt with it in mind.