Central Park was under a canvas of snow Sunday morning, with its trees, meadows and pathways frosted in a wintry icing after New York City’s first big snowfall of the season.
The snow fell across the city overnight, picking up steadily in the early morning hours before beginning to taper off from the west around midmorning.
The National Weather Service offices in New York and New Jersey issued winter weather advisories through Sunday afternoon. Winter storm warnings were also in effect for much of New Jersey and southeast Pennsylvania, where up to six inches of heavy snow was expected to accumulate.
The snow felt significant in a city that has received below-normal snowfall in recent years.
As of 7 a.m., 1.1 inches of snow had fallen at Belvedere Castle in Central Park, the official National Weather Service measuring station for the city. That made Sunday the earliest date of the season since Dec. 2, 2019, that more than one inch of snow had accumulated in Central Park. Forecasters expect up to four inches of snow to accumulate there on Sunday.
At Kennedy International Airport, 2.6 inches of snow had accumulated by 7 a.m., and there was 1.7 inches of accumulation at LaGuardia Airport.
In a typical winter, the Central Park site records nearly 30 inches of snow, according to the 30-year average from the Weather Service. In recent seasons, totals have not come close to that.
Only a little more than a foot was recorded last winter, which was more than the 7.5 inches measured at the site the winter before, and the scant 2.3 inches the winter before that.
The snow overnight came as a cold, fast-moving storm barreled across the Mid-Atlantic region. Places across Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania had received between two inches and a foot of snow by Sunday morning.
The system is expected to exit the region by Sunday afternoon, brushing parts of southern New England before moving offshore over the Atlantic Ocean by Sunday evening, said Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
The system brought with it “a shot of cold air,” Mr. Pereira said, and on Monday temperatures across the Mid-Atlantic are forecast to plummet to below normal.
In New York City on Monday morning, temperatures are expected to be in the teens, according to Dominic Ramunni, a meteorologist at the Weather Service office in Upton, N.Y. With the wind, he said, it might feel like the temperature is in the single digits.
“People are going to get a real blast of winter,” he said.
By Tuesday, temperatures across the Mid-Atlantic are expected to be seasonal, and could potentially rise to above normal by Wednesday.
Amy Graff is a Times reporter covering weather, wildfires and earthquakes.
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