Blizzard warnings were issued Saturday for New York City, New Jersey and coastal communities along the East Coast as the winter storm is set to arrive on Sunday, dumping more than a foot of snow and packing winds of more than 55mph.
The blizzard warning for New York City is the first since 2017, and parts of the city are still covered in snowdrifts — leftovers from a previous big blizzard about a month ago.
The National Weather Service predicted the intensity of the storm, predicting 1 foot to 2 feet of snow in New York City, Long Island, southern Connecticut and coastal areas of New Jersey and Delaware. Flooding is also possible in New York and New Jersey, the weather department said.
“We’ve been getting a lot of these nor’easters that produce heavy snow and strong impacts, and it’s been years since we’ve seen one of this magnitude in this large area of the country,” said Cody Snell, a meteorologist at the service’s Climate Prediction Center.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference on Saturday that the city could get up to 20in. A blizzard warning goes into effect at 6 a.m. Sunday and lasts until 6 p.m. Monday.
“We’re expecting between 13 and 17 inches of snow now, but we’re likely to see up to 20 inches, if not more,” Mamdani said, adding that efforts to get homeless New Yorkers off the streets and into shelters would begin Saturday afternoon.
At least 19 people died outdoors in the city on January 19 after temperatures plunged to 10 straight days below freezing. At least 15 of the victims are believed to have died of hypothermia.
The NWS’s Snell said the storm will move toward Philadelphia and New York City before reaching Boston on Monday evening, before making landfall around Washington DC on Sunday morning.
The weather service warned that the storm “will make travel hazardous, if not impossible. Power outages are possible due to scattered downed tree limbs and snow loads and strong winds.”
With the blizzard approaching early in the work week, Mamdani said he’s asking New Yorkers to “stay inside for your own safety and stay off the roads. These are likely to have more dangerous conditions than the last time we experienced them.”
On Saturday, officials in Atlantic City, New Jersey urged residents and casino visitors to stay off the streets during the storm, especially in low-lying areas prone to flooding.
“I could probably go on with a good two dozen streets where we know we’re going to get water and snow on top of that,” said Scott Evans, the city’s fire chief and emergency management coordinator. “So you won’t see this until it’s too late, so please stay home.”
