Snow has a way of making a big city feel small, especially when the wind starts bullying it sideways. The National Weather Service has now put it plainly for New York City and nearby counties, issuing a Blizzard Warning that runs from 6 AM Sunday to 6 PM Monday.
New York's five boroughs sit on islands and river mouths, with open water on multiple sides, which is why coastal storms can turn from picturesque to punishing in a hurry. This weekend's setup is not a gentle, Sunday-morning dusting.
A quick reality check for readers outside the US. A Blizzard Warning is not just 'it will snow.' In this case, the NWS is calling for blizzard conditions with total snow accumulations between 13 and 18 inches and wind gusts as high as 55 mph.
Blizzard Warning Hits NYC With A Hard Number
The warning issued by NWS Upton, New York covers New York City's core counties including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, plus parts of Long Island and nearby areas across southern Connecticut and southeast New York. If you're not local, 'Long Island' is the long, low strip east of New York City, and it tends to take the first punch when Atlantic storms wrap their worst bands onshore.
The NWS is also explicit about what makes this a blizzard situation, not merely a heavy snowfall forecast. Visibility may drop below a quarter mile because of falling and blowing snow, and 'whiteout conditions are expected' in the agency's wording. That matters because whiteouts are when drivers stop seeing lane lines and even the car in front becomes guesswork, which is how routine trips become headline tragedies.
The forecast problem is not just the amount of snow. The NWS warns that the combination of strong winds and the weight of snow on tree limbs may bring down power lines and cause sporadic outages. If that sounds dramatic, it is meant to, and frankly it should be.
Blizzard Warning Puts The Monday Commute On Notice
The timing is almost designed to cause maximum disruption. The Blizzard Warning begins at 6 AM Sunday and lasts through 6 PM Monday, with the strongest winds and blizzard conditions expected Sunday night into Monday. Snow, the NWS notes, is expected to move in during the morning and afternoon hours, which is the sort of detail that tempts people into thinking they can 'beat it' if they leave early enough.
The agency is not playing along with that optimism. 'Travel should be restricted to emergencies only,' the NWS warning says, before repeating the message even more sharply, 'Do not travel.' It also states that travel could be very difficult to impossible in the broader winter storm warning area, and that hazardous conditions could affect both the Monday morning and Monday evening commutes.
If you need a plain-language translation, it is this. A city that runs on tight schedules is being told to expect roads that do not behave, visibility that disappears, and wind that can turn plowed streets right back into drifts. The Storm does not care that it is Monday.
The NWS warning even offers the sort of unglamorous, lived-in advice that shows how bad conditions can get. If you must travel, it urges people to carry a winter survival kit, and if stranded, to stay with the vehicle rather than trying to walk out in low visibility. That is not melodrama, it is what emergency agencies say when they have seen too many people do the brave, stupid thing.
Nothing about exact neighborhood totals is guaranteed yet, so take every hyper-specific inch count you see on social media with a grain of salt. The official Blizzard Warning, though, is already enough to tell New Yorkers and anyone traveling through the region that this is a serious, disruptive storm with a real edge to it.
Originally published on IBTimes UK
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