NYC’s current snowless streak on track to break 50-year record this weekend
Another day of unseasonably warm weather is pushing New York City toward its longest snowless winter on record.
A wintery mix of rain and snow flurries fell Tuesday but yielded no accumulation. The 10-day forecast predicts no snow until Feb. 5, according to the Weather Channel. If meteorologist predictions bear out, a record set 50 years ago — when the city saw its first accumulation of snow on Jan. 29 — is about to fall.
The average first snowfall for New York City is Dec. 7. Last winter, the city’s first measurable accumulation of snow in Central Park was a .2-inch dusting on Dec. 23, 2021, NBC New York reported.
The city last saw snow on March 9, 2022, according to the New York Times. That was 323 days ago. In 2020, no snow fell for a record 332 days. The record for the longest period without snow is also predicted to topple based on the most recent forecast. Even if NYC does see snow on Feb. 5, the city will have gone 333 days without measurable snowfall.
Meteorologist Dave Radell told the Times the tracks of recent storms have taken them north and west of the New York City area — where temperatures have been relatively warm — and into cities like Buffalo, where dozens of deaths were blamed on brutal weather at the close of 2022. Parts of upstate New York saw up to a foot of snow this week.
New Yorkers living in the city in 2016 recall likely shoveling themselves out of a record-breaking Jan. 22-23 blizzard that left 27.5 inches of snow on the ground. That year wound up being the hottest on record at the time, according to NASA. It was matched in 2020.
The Weather Channel forecasts highs around 50 degrees in the city this weekend.
