Less than two inches (1.8) of snow accumulated in New York’s Central Park last night, in the first winter “storm” of this season, when in theory spring is only three weeks away on the calendar.
As a result, many schools in New York and New Jersey today announced schedule delays or suspension of classes altogether. Hundreds of flights to and from the area have also been canceled, including 150 at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and more than 100 at JFK, according to the specialized portal. Flight Aware. More than two dozen flights were also delayed at LGA and 70 at JFK, where 2.7 and 1.5 inches of snow accumulated, respectively. Across the Hudson River, Newark Liberty (NJ) had nearly 50 cancellations and nearly 40 delays.
The Bronx experienced the most snowpack among NYC’s five boroughs, at 5.6 inches, it said. Daily News.
Throughout the country today there have been more than 450 flight cancellations and over 700 delays. “Weather conditions have caused disruptions to flights from LGA airport. Check with your airline to determine the status of your flight,” the Queens-based terminal posted this morning on Twitter.
In preparation for the storm, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) said yesterday that it had available more than 700 million pounds of salt, more than 700 spreaders and more than 2,000 vehicles to remove snow and prevent accumulation on the asphalt.
Before the storm that began last night, New York City had only recorded just 0.4 inches of snow this winter on February 1, the National Weather Service (NWS) recalled. That schedule delay set a new record for the first trackable snowfall in a season and ended NYC’s near-record streak of 328 consecutive snow-free days.
Although there had been no snow in NYC, earlier this winter a gust of arctic air swept through the tri-state area at Christmas time bringing record cold and tragedy to the region with a lengthy snowfall that killed at least 38 people in upstate.
January was historically warm in NYC, but early February saw very cold days with temperatures as low as 0°F (-17C) in metropolitan parts of New York.
The next few days are shaping up to be cold and rainy, with a possible light snowfall on Friday. Weather updates can be found here and on the National Weather Service (NWS-NY) website. More details here about the forecast in New York and Jersey counties and on this page of NBC News Weather.