New Yorkers are bracing themselves for an impending severe weather event.
For the first time in over ten years, New York City is preparing for a blizzard as a significant nor’easter makes its way up the northeastern coast.
The forecast suggests the city could be blanketed with 12 to 18 inches of snow, with the possibility of accumulation reaching up to two feet.
Areas like Eastern Long Island and the Jersey Shore might see snowfall exceeding 24 inches.
The blizzard warning, the first since 2017, is set to take effect at 1 p.m.
Snowfall is anticipated to begin on Sunday afternoon, intensifying to a rate of 1-2 inches per hour from late Sunday into Monday.
Accompanying the heavy snow, set to be even greater than last month’s nasty dump, forecasters are predicting the winter storm will bring dangerous winds of up to 55 mph.
That could cause whiteout conditions making “travel treacherous and potentially life-threatening,” the weather service said.
“The strong winds and weight of snow on tree limbs may down power lines and could cause sporadic power outages.”
For the first time on record, all 22 counties in New Jersey are under a blizzard warning, with experts predicting the conditions cause life-threatening conditions on the road.
Coastal flood warnings are also in place in New York, Long Island and the Jersey Shore.
âWhile we do get plenty of these nor’easters that produce heavy snow and strong impacts, it’s been several years since we saw one of this magnitude across this large of a region in this very populated part of the country,â Cody Snell, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center told AP.
Mayor Mamdani warned that the weather predictions had changed for the worst last minute, but held off on announcing whether schools in the city would open Monday.
âWe saw on Friday that there was an expectation that the likelihood was that we were going to face maybe 3 to 4 inches of snow. Quickly that then changed,â Mamdani said. âSo we want to make sure that we make a decision based on up-to-date and accurate information.â
With Post wires.
