New York City is bracing for a major winter storm that could bring a foot and a half of snow or more to the area this weekend, the heaviest snowfall yet in a punishing winter for the five boroughs.
The storm, which is expected to hit much of the coastal Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region, will bring significant snowfall, strong winds and blizzard conditions to the New York metropolitan area, according to the National Weather Service.
New York City, Long Island and parts of Connecticut were all under blizzard warnings from Sunday morning through Monday afternoon, the first such advisory issued for the city since 2017, the Weather Service said.
The snow will begin on Sunday morning, increasing in intensity that night before eventually tapering off late Monday morning. The heaviest snow is expected overnight on Sunday, when flakes will fall at a rate of one to two inches per hour, or more, the Weather Service said.
New York City could get 13 to 18 inches of snow, with a chance of 20 inches or more possible, according to the Emergency Management Department. If it snows as predicted, the storm would be the heaviest since 2016, when a record-breaking blizzard dropped 27.5 inches onto Central Park.
This weekend’s storm is also expected to pummel the broader Northeast region, with up to 20 inches expected in parts of Massachusetts, and six to 12 inches in sections of Pennsylvania, the Weather Service said. The storm will bring wind gusts as fast as 55 miles per hour to the New York region, and a chance of flooding in parts of coastal New Jersey and New York, including parts of the Bronx and Queens, the service and the city said.
During a news conference on Saturday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani encouraged New Yorkers to stay home and off the roads throughout the storm.
“Tomorrow, our city will face its second snowstorm in less than a month and our first blizzard since 2016,” Mr. Mamdani said. “These have the potential to be even more hazardous conditions than we faced in the last storm.” He followed the conference with a snappy video posted to social media, summarizing his statements.
On Saturday afternoon, preparations for the storm were already well underway in New York, as city agencies readied thousands of vehicles and loaded up 700 salt spreaders.
The city’s Department of Sanitation on Saturday issued a high alert for the storm and said it planned to debut new strategies to better handle the snow, including quickly clearing fire hydrants, bus stops and crosswalks. The city will also require that a four-foot-wide path be cleared on all sidewalks to accommodate wheelchairs, and it will deploy more than 1,000 emergency workers to shovel starting Sunday night, an increase from the last storm, Mr. Mamdani said.
The mayor said on Saturday that he had not yet decided whether the city’s schools would remain open for in-person learning on Monday, but that he planned to make a decision on the matter by noon on Sunday.
The coming storm will bring near-blizzard conditions to the city for the first time in four years. But it arrives amid a grueling winter in New York, one that has brought dangerously cold temperatures and significant snow accumulations after years of mild winters.
Earlier this year, New Yorkers experienced a punishing cold snap for weeks, the longest stretch of freezing temperatures in years, which left at least 20 people dead from exposure. The victims ranged in age from 27 to 90 and included several homeless people.
The extreme temperatures have posed an early challenge for Mr. Mamdani, whose handling of homelessness in particular has come under scrutiny. On Wednesday, the mayor announced that the city would restart sweeps of homeless encampments, ending a pause of the practice instituted during his first week in office. (The administration has said it does not believe that any of the people who died in the cold were living in encampments.)
On Saturday, the mayor said that the city would enter an “enhanced Code Blue” status beginning at 4 p.m. that day in an effort to compel more homeless people to enter shelters. Mr. Mamdani said the city would deploy outreach workers across New York and make available 18 warming buses, 24 warming centers and a fleet of mobile units providing clinical support, socks and food.
“Let me be clear,” he said. “No one will be denied shelter in our city.”
New York City has experienced its snowiest winter in years this season. What began as a coating of pristine white snow has devolved into an icy, sooty and garbage-ridden mess. Mountains of unmelted snow have covered sidewalk corners, crosswalks and parked cars, picking up unnatural hues of gray, yellow and brown.
The storm this weekend is likely to cover that mess, coating it in a fresh layer of snow that may melt and freeze over again in the coming days. But for many New Yorkers, the storm is an unwelcome return of snow amid a relentless winter that has worn them thin.
Maia Coleman is a reporter for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York area.
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