The early hours of New York City’s first real snow day in years were uncannily quiet.
The snow was still falling rapidly, and thanks to travel restrictions, few, if any, vehicles were on the road. The landscape was transformed, blanketed in white, with tree branches, awnings and fire escapes outlined in ivory.
As of 1:30 p.m. Monday, 19.7 inches of snow had been recorded in Central Park, making it a top 10 snowstorm for the city, with records dating back to 1869. The blizzard comes in ninth, ahead of the 19 inches that fell in January 2011, and the snowfall so far was half a foot short of the highest amounts recorded during a blizzard in 2016, which reached 27.5 inches. But snow was still falling, and it could pile up further before the next totals come in after 7 p.m.
And it was an exciting day for New York City schoolchildren: Mayor Zohran Mamdani had announced that public schools would be closed, and no remote classes would be held. Students would instead enjoy the city’s first snow day in nearly seven years.
Snow days in New York are magical. Cross against the light, jaywalk, run, scream, frolic in the park. If you can find a section of sidewalk not covered in dog poop, you can make a snow angel, or a snowman. No rules. No obstacles.
Breathe in the crisp, cold, clean city air, free of exhaust. Look around. For a few hours on Monday, there was no litter, no grime. The cityscape was transformed and reshaped into a silent, mythical, semi-deserted ice planet. You could stand in the middle of the street and simply watch the snow fall.
Then, as the day wore on and the flakes began to slow, the children came out to play.
Zoe Chebar, 17, and two of her friends said they appreciated the temporary driving ban on Monday as they arrived at Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn with their sleds.
“My dad’s a chauffeur,” said Veronica Arévalo, 16, who had walked a mile to the park. “He’s the happiest guy alive right now.”
Gus Weir, 16, had a slightly different take on the lack of car traffic.
“It makes me a little more scared of cars because I can’t hear them coming,” she said. “But I am loving the snow, it’s very pretty. I like being able to walk in the street.”
Despite the quiet, there were pockets of activity.
In Park Slope, a man traversed Fifth Avenue on cross-country skis.
In Lower Manhattan, a wild turkey named Astoria who roams Battery Park strolled gizzard-deep in a snowdrift.
John and Monique Collins, who live near Union Square, took the subway uptown, walked two miles through a snow-covered Central Park and made their way to Zabar’s grocery store at Broadway and West 80th Street, not checking first to see if it was open. It opened at 1 p.m., just as they arrived. They were buying smoked salmon and mushroom empanadas.
“I was jonesing for some lox, so I thought, what better place to come than here,” Mr. Collins said.
Eli Maghi, an employee at Greene Bites 24-hour bodega across from the Brooklyn Hospital Center on DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene, said the store had stayed open and busy throughout the storm.
“People depend on us,” he said.
Some of the store’s employees couldn’t commute to work because of the snow, so “we had some heroes in here doing double shifts,” Mr. Maghi said. But so far, his customers had been kind. “People are really patient in this weather; they’ll wait 30 minutes for a sandwich.”
Miguel Vasquez, a hospital security worker, was one of the grateful customers as he grabbed a cherry-flavored Pepsi around noon on Monday. He noted that during a days-long cold snap that began in late January, many New Yorkers, exposed to below-freezing temperatures, lost their lives.
No deaths had yet been reported in connection to this storm, despite the blizzard conditions, and the temperatures were less bone-chilling. For Mr. Vasquez, it felt like a respite. “When it snows like this, people don’t tend to come to the E.R.,” he said. “It’s been nice and calm.”
Josh Rodriguez, 41, a lifelong New Yorker, had ventured to the deli for a large coffee after calling out of work on Monday. He said he planned to take his 8-year-old and 10-year-old sledding in Fort Greene Park.
He compared the snowstorm to the one in January 1996. “I was a little kid then,” he said. “I loved it so much more than now, because to me the snowdrifts were over my head. I imagine for the kids this is amazing.”
By noon, Shannon Ingraham’s daughter and son had already packed in a full snow day, the first in their short lives.
The children, Leo, 6, and Esme, 4, rushed down the stairs of their Upper West Side apartment building, swung open the door and dived into more than a foot of snow. Moments later, they started throwing snowballs at each other.
It didn’t take long for Ms. Ingraham to join in — and the children said she didn’t take it easy on them.
When asked who won the snowball fight, they both yelled out, “Mom!”
Ms. Ingraham said they caught a second wind soon after and made their way to Central Park with a green sled in tow. Esme wore large reflective snow goggles and Leo wore his mother’s pink mittens.
“This is fully a snow day, right?” Ms. Ingraham said.
“Yes!” Esme said, throwing her hands in the air.
The social media content producers known as Sidetalk were plotting a huge snowball fight in Washington Square Park. “Tell your friends,” a post on Instagram prodded.
But not everyone was enjoying the freedom of a snow day. Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, has been an outspoken proponent of in-office work, and that apparently applies to a blizzard, too. The bank, the nation’s largest, sticking with plans to host an in-person “company update” event for investors at its Midtown Manhattan headquarters in the afternoon, a spokesman said. Mr. Dimon was slated to be there in person.
By 1:30 p.m., the mayor had announced that school would be back in session in person on Tuesday. He added that he would allow himself to be pelted with snowballs, knowing students may be disappointed by the news.
Still, Monday offered many more hours of fun.
Those intrepid enough to venture out in the morning were treated to a unique experience: New York City mid-blizzard, enveloped by pristine, freshly fallen snow. Before the shovels, before the plows, before the snowmen and the snowballs. Before the travel restrictions were lifted. When the city, known for its thrumming chaos, had turned hushed and languid. Gloriously quiet roads, with no honking, no engines revving, sputtering or idling. The traffic lights, oblivious, changing from green to yellow to red.
It was possible to walk down the middle of a street, turn onto an avenue, and keep going, as far as you wanted, without ever yielding to another pedestrian or any cars. With a little bravery and the right shoes, the city was yours.
Reporting was contributed by Miles G. Cohen, Cassidy Jensen, Rob Copeland, John Leland and Judson Jones.
Dodai Stewart is a Times reporter who writes about living in New York City, with a focus on how, and where, we gather.
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