Snow piles up as winter blast moves through New York City area

NEW YORK - The flakes began falling late on Dec 26 in New York City in what was expected to be the biggest snowfall in more than three years in the nation’s largest metropolitan area.

By 7pm local time (8am in Singapore on Dec 27), snow was falling steadily in the city and piling up in some suburbs, making driving hazardous.

The storm was expected to drop 5cm to 13cm of snow on New York City and north-east New Jersey, according to an updated National Weather Service forecast issued at 8.23pm, lowering earlier projections. Even at the reduced totals, the snowfall would be substantial for an area where hardly a foot of snow had accumulated in some places for three straight winters.

In the Lower Hudson Valley and Long Island areas, the weather service predicted 15cm to 28cm. Forecasts called for the snowfall to peak overnight and then taper off early on Dec 27.

At 8pm, the National Weather Service reported accumulations of 7.6cm in Somers, New York; 5.6cm in Bridgeport, Connecticut; and 4.8cm in Islip, New York, on Long Island. The totals in New York City were more modest: 0.8cm in Central Park, and 0.25cm at both LaGuardia and Kennedy airports.

Still, the snow was expected to persist through the night at rates of 5cm an hour or more, suggesting heavy accumulations were still likely. Coming right after Christmas, all that snow was complicating one of the year’s busiest travel weekends.

Ms Catalina Martinelli and her parents Aldo Martinelli and Valeria Doino were among those affected. Their 8.30pm Delta flight from LaGuardia to Orlando, Florida, was cancelled and the next available one was Dec 29.

“We have to find where to stay,” said Ms Martinelli, a 22-year-old student from Spain attending college in Vermont, as she and her parents huddled over their phones in the airport’s Terminal C, looking for lodgings.

They had already researched train and bus schedules to Florida. “They were all booked,” Ms Martinelli said.

The region was deep in preparation for the expected storm long before the first flakes fell.

City and state agencies brined streets and highways with liquid salt and lined up ploughs for deployment. Airlines cancelled flights at LaGuardia and the area’s two other major airports. New Jersey and New York declared states of emergency, and south-eastern New York, northern New York, western Connecticut and eastern Pennsylvania were under storm warnings.

Here’s what to expect as the storm rolls in:

The forecast

The New York City area was likely to get 13cm to 23cm of snow, with the heaviest concentrations north of the city, along the Hudson River Valley up through central New York, and across central and eastern Long Island, according to the National Weather Service. Some areas could get up to 28cm.

After the early afternoon of Dec 26, the storm was expected to reach its heaviest point overnight, with snowfall potentially coming down at 5cm per hour. The snow should diminish by sunrise on Dec 27, although light snow was possible until mid-morning.

Parts of the region could experience some of their most significant snow totals in years.

In the winter of 2024, New York City recorded barely over 30cm for the season, still an increase from the 19cm the previous winter and the paltry 5.8cm the winter before that. From February 2022 to January 2024, the city went nearly two full years without meaningful snowfall.

Other parts of the north-east, including sections of western Pennsylvania, faced the prospect of an intense ice storm starting on Dec 26 and extending into the morning of Dec 27. A warning was in place for an area stretching from Erie, Pennsylvania, to the highlands north and east of Pittsburgh, where forecasters warned people to avoid travel.

Planes, trains and automobiles

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York said residents “may wish to rearrange travel plans”, and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City urged commuters to avoid driving and to allow extra time when taking public transportation.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it had been expecting about 15 million travellers to use its airports, bridges and tunnels over the holiday season.

By the afternoon of Dec 26, hundreds of scheduled departures and arrivals at the region’s three major airports had been cancelled, and hundreds more had been delayed, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.

A total of 1,472 flights within, into or out of the United States had been cancelled as of 4pm; more than 5,500 had been delayed.

American, Delta, JetBlue, United and other airlines said they would waive change fees for passengers flying into or out of the New York area’s three major airports, as well as Philadelphia International Airport and some smaller north-east airports. American and United said the waivers would also apply to passengers flying into or out of Boston Logan International Airport.

Disruptions were expected to continue over the weekend. JetBlue Airways, which disproportionately serves the north-east, has cancelled 154 flights scheduled for Dec 27, or 15 per cent of its operations, according to FlightAware.

Amtrak had not made major schedule changes by the early afternoon of Dec 26. The railroad said it would notify passengers of adjustments via its app, website and on X.

Drivers should expect treacherous roads and reduced visibility. The New York Thruway Authority urged travellers to use the agency’s mobile app to track real-time traffic information. Motorists may also sign up for TRANSalert e-mails and follow the agency’s X account for traffic conditions.

In New Jersey, a commercial vehicle restriction for tractor-trailers, recreational vehicles, motorcycles and vehicles with trailers took effect at 3pm on I-78, I-80, I-280, I-287 and Route 440.

New York at the ready

Agencies across the city and state were in full-on preparation mode on Dec 26, well before a single flake had fallen. The city’s emergency management department said on Dec 24 that it had activated its winter weather emergency plan.

City sanitation workers began laying salt brine on streets and highways at midnight to limit the accumulation of snow and ice. The agency had also lined up more than 700 salt spreaders for roads, highways and bike lanes, a spokesperson said. Plans were in place to deploy the Sanitation Department’s fleet of 2,200 snow ploughs once 5cm of snow had fallen.

Outside the city, Ms Hochul said, the state was planning to send out more than 1,600 large plough trucks.

During an appearance on WABC, Ms Hochul said she was positioning utility crews in case of power outages and working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to ensure that outdoor subway lines would be cleared and accessible.

The kids are all right

On Long Island, Mr Rob Maskin and his four-year-old daughter exited Southold Hardware with an orange snow saucer on Dec 26. Mr Maskin said he had called ahead to reserve a sled for fear that the store would sell out.

“It’s her first time sledding,” he said, as his daughter jumped around beside him.

Many residents of the north-east said they were hardly fazed by the forecast.

“I wasn’t planning on preparing at all,” Ms Asieh Linda Nassehi Javan, 66, said as she inspected a bag of penne in the pasta aisle of the Food Emporium supermarket in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn.

Nearby, on Grand Avenue, Ms Lori Swan, 56, adapted with pleasure in mind.

“I cancelled a dinner reservation that was farther away,” she said with a laugh. “We booked one closer instead. That’s it.”

In Allentown, Pennsylvania, Mayor Matt Tuerk said he was ready for whatever came. He recalled a blizzard in 2016, when 81cm of snow covered the city after the forecast had predicted just 15cm.

“Our guys treat this very seriously because you never know what’s going to happen,” Mr Tuerk said. “Our guys’ motto is ‘Whatever the weather, we’re out there together.’” NYTIMES