The Big Apple usually gets its first dusting in mid-December.
New York:
The thought of New York in the wintertime conjures up images of Manhattan’s Times Square and Central Park being covered in snow. not this year.
The city is forecast to surpass a 50-year record on Sunday for the latest first snowfall of the season.
It’s close to recording its highest number of consecutive days without any measurable flex.
The snowless streak has puzzled New Yorkers, with some questioning their love-hate relationship with the white stuff.
“It’s really sad,” said retired teacher Anne Hansen. “Basically, we don’t like to see snow. But now we are missing it a lot,” she told AFP.
The Big Apple usually gets its first dusting in mid-December. Last season it came on Christmas Eve.
A heavy load often results in “snow days,” beloved by children and office workers who get time off from school and work.
The kids grab their sleds and head to the nearest grassy slope. Adults cross-country ski around the main parks.
“You stay home, you drink hot cocoa; it’s beautiful and the dogs love it,” filmmaker Renata Romain told AFP.
Joy quickly turns to despair, however, as snow turns yellow-brown, sidewalks pile up with trash, and trips to the launderette become dangerous.
“The snow is beautiful to look at the first day, but later it’s dirty and I don’t like it. It’s muddy. It’s bad,” said Romain.
Meteorologists define snowfall in NYC as at least 0.1 inch of snow in Central Park. Last Wednesday a few flakes fell but not enough to count.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the longest residents have had to wait for measurable snow is January 29, a record set in 1973.
A no snow Sunday would mean the longest wait since records began in 1869.
New York is also inching closer to its longest streak of consecutive days without snow. The current record is 332, which ended on December 15, 2020.
Sunday’s day would be 326. Accuweather calls this period an “ice drought”.
“It’s very unusual,” NWS meteorologist Nelson Vaz told AFP.
In December, up to 40 inches (one meter) of snow fell in Buffalo, New York State, near the Canadian border, killing at least 39 people.
But a few hundred miles southeast, in NYC and the surrounding Atlantic coastal regions, rain amid mild temperatures means a lot of rain.
According to Weather.com, only in 1932 New York had more warm first 25 days of January than in 2023.
Scientists say that due to climate change, winters are getting warmer and shorter.
“It’s depressing,” Hansen said recently of balmy days that have felt more like fall.
New York is never a complete cold season without a measurable amount of snow.
And with February usually being its snowiest month, a white blanket may soon cover the Big Apple yet.
“That’s what makes New York, New York, right?” Romain said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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