Christmas festivities were winding down on Friday as New Yorkers were gearing up for a major snow storm.
The fast-moving storm is poised to bring snow and ice to huge swaths of the Northeast this weekend, with more than 23 million people under winter storm warnings, including New York City, which could see up to 11 inches of snow — the most significant total in nearly four years.
And it’s set to make post-holiday travel this weekend tricky for most.
As of Friday evening, more than 1,600 flights had been canceled across the United States. New York City’s three airports — John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty — were hit the hardest, with more than 900 arrivals and departures being canceled and 700-plus flights delayed.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey earlier this week said it was anticipating nearly 15 million travelers to pass through the area airports along with its bridges and tunnels for the holiday season.
New York City Emergency Management warned that “road conditions will deteriorate rapidly,” as visibility drops due to snowfall and sleet piles up, making driving dangerous.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said that New Yorkers traveling on Friday or Saturday “may wish to rearrange” their plans, while Mayor Eric Adams asked city residents to avoid driving if possible. Those planning to take the NYC ferry may also need to find alternate routes, as service ended early, at 6 p.m. on Friday.
“If you have to travel, plan ahead, take it slow and leave plenty of time to get to where you need to go safely,” Hochul said.
The city began to see its first significant flakes shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday, just as the governor declared a state of emergency for the areas expected to be most severely affected by the storm, including all five NYC boroughs, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties, plus large swaths of Duchess, Ulster and Sullivan counties.
Acting Department of Sanitation Commissioner Javier Lojan said the city would deploy snow plows once the accumulation on the ground reached 2 inches.
As of 8 p.m., the FDNY reported no major snow-related incidents, but said it would continue to watch the situation closely.
The snowfall is forecast to be its most intense overnight, around 2 or 3 a.m. on Saturday, at which point flakes were expected to fall at a rate of 2 inches an hour at times. The snow will continue into Saturday morning before tapering off around noon.
A winter storm watch and travel advisory will remain in effect for much of the tristate area, including New York City, through 1 p.m.
In total, the forecast suggests between 5 and 9 inches of snowfall, the National Weather Service said, noting that some spots could see up to 11 inches, with the “highest amounts more likely across northern sections of NYC/New Jersey metro and central and eastern Long Island.”
Even if the snowfall is on the lower end of the prediction, it could still be the most significant accumulation in New York City since January 2022, when more than 8 inches fell in Central Park.
Snow has been light in the years since. Last year, just more than a foot of snow accumulated throughout the entire season, topping 2023’s total, which measured just about 8 inches. The snowfall in the year prior was even less, with totals barely topping 2 inches.
The current record was set in 2016, when 27.5 inches of snow buried the city.
