New York City faces a storm on the busiest travel day of the year, but take comfort: It won’t be as bad as initially predicted.
New York City is expected to be spared any significant accumulation of snow during the Thanksgiving Eve storm, the National Weather Service said on Wednesday. Indeed, meteorologist David Stark said only about two-tenths of an inch of snow was recorded at Central Park at noon. Instead, the city was a dreary, wet mess with rain and sleet mixing with the cold weather.
Temperatures were in the low 30s between noon and 2 p.m., Stark said, and the high for the day was actually recorded at 2:44 a.m. when the needle hit 51 degrees.
Asked how the forecast could change so drastically from earlier this week when four to eight inches of snow had been predicted for the city, Stark said the storm system ended up tracking closer to the coast than expected.
“It made it not cold enough to support snow for an extended period of time,” he said.
Instead, the storm dropped snow on the Hudson Valley, which had already received four to eight inches of snow by 5 p.m., and could see at least six more inches Wednesday night.
Rain was expected to continue to drench the city until midnight on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.
The New York City Office of Emergency Management has issued a travel advisory until 1 a.m. Thursday due to “dangerous driving conditions” in the city.
Flight cancellations and delays were already reported at JFK and LaGuardia Airports on Wednesday.
Outside the city, upstate New York and northern New Jersey is expected to be hit the hardest. Northern Westchester, Dutchess, Orange and Putnam counties and parts of northern New Jersey are expected to get between six to 12 inches of snow. Coastal areas of Connecticut will likely only get one to four inches of snow, while the northern New Haven and surrounding areas could get up to six to 12 inches as well.
New York state announced they would deploy scrapper “shoes” to the subway third rail to remove snow and ice. Salt trucks with plows have been assigned to each bus depot to work with city sanitation crews.
If you’re a snow lover, enjoy: This could be NYC’s first white Thanksgiving since 1989, according to the New York Times.
And although sunny skies are predicted on Black Friday, shoppers will have to brave the cold: Temperatures are only expected to top out in the 30s in the city. Gear up for an uncertain weekend: There is a small chance of snow after 1 a.m. on Saturday.
— With Cristian Salazar
