Children, dogs, adults of strong moral character are all asking: Where is the snow?
9:47 AM EST on January 12, 2023
New York City is hit with 8-12 inches during snowstorm Niko’s peak hours early Thursday morning on February, 9th, 2017. (Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)
You suffer through the darkness and cold and in return, you are occasionally rewarded with fat flakes falling from the sky, blunting the edges and softening the roar of our filthy town. This is the bargain that New Yorkers have with winter, but so far this year, winter has failed us.
Central Park has only recorded a trace of snow since December 1. The meter at LaGuardia Airport saw a dusting at some point, a mockery. Usually, the average snowfall for New York City this time of year is between six and seven inches.
Children, dogs, adults of strong moral character are all asking: Where is the snow?
Here's a visual on where we stand with 308 consecutive days without measurable snowfall in NYC. pic.twitter.com/4Y0seKfWSn
Our own Sanitation Department, which has the honor and privilege of removing wintery precipitation from our streets, used the current snow scarcity to score points on Twitter—no doubt a cry for help from a bewildered agency.
Feeling similarly discombobulated this morning, Hell Gate picked up the phone and called the National Weather Service. If we couldn't order up some snow, we could perhaps try to understand what is happening.
Bryan Ramsey, an NWS meteorologist, pointed out that things aren't nearly as dire here as they are out west, where the water supply is fed by snow pack, which has been steadily diminishing over the years.
"Some parts of the country really rely on the snow," Ramsey said. "Here, it's more of, how much water do we have falling from the sky?" (The answer: enough.)
"I think the biggest impact is the emotions, in a way. People aren't seeing as much snow as usual, and it can be alarming to people," Ramsey told us, as we clutched the phone, nodding furiously.
The rain that's currently falling is going to stay rain. And Ramsey said there's no snow in the forecast over the next week.
"Historically, odds are, we should be able to see something before the end of winter," Ramsey added hopefully. "Winter only started at the end of December. We still do have a ways to go."
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