The Big Apple’s gonna be buried!
A fast-approaching deadly winter storm is expected to dump up to 18 inches of snow on the New York City area early Sunday — bringing a bone-chilling temps and a travel nightmare across the tri-state.
“The roads are going to be horrendous from Sunday on,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines.
“There’s no travel that will be safe, it’s going to be a disaster.”
Deccio Serrano/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
The snow is expect to start between midnight and 8 a.m. Sunday and continue into Monday — snarling roads and grounding airplane flights, Kines said.
Forecasters are predicting up to 16 inches for New York City and up to 18 inches for the Hudson Valley — potentially the most snowfall there since the Blizzard of 1996.
Don’t expect to go anywhere or get anything done Sunday, and possibly Monday, Kines said.
“If there’s a foot or more, the city is going to be at a standstill. Travel by land will be slow at best if not impossible and airports will be shut down,” he said.
Snowfall in other parts of the US such as Dallas and Charlotte will likely cause flight delays in New York City and all over the country, Kines said.
“There’ll be a huge domino effect on airport this weekend,” he said. “I’m sure there’s gonna be many, many cancelations and delays.”
Nationally, the historic winter storm is set to bring “considerable disruption” to millions of people in roughly 35 states, with areas east of the Rockies hardest hit, forecasters said.
The snowfall — which comes as the city shivers through frigid temperatures in the teens — is forecast to stop by around noon Monday at the latest, Kines said.
And it’s going to stick around, too. Temps will dip to 11 degrees Friday and aren’t expected to rise above freezing until Wednesday, Feb. 4.
“It’s going to be a dry, fluffy snow, which is good for those who have to shovel, so that’s one bright spot,” he said.
If the Big Apple gets at least a foot of snow, it would be the most in the city since February 2021, when 16.8 inches fell in Central Park over a two-day period.
The more likely scenario, Kines said the storm could move north and blanket the city with 4 to 8 inches.
Overall, 8 to 12 inches will fall around the tri-state region — including in the Hudson Valley, nearly all of New Jersey and Connecticut, according to meteorologists.
Still, despite the warnings, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the jury is still out on just how badly the city will be hit.
“We are expecting precipitation to begin late Saturday or early Sunday and to possibly last into Monday. The forecast is predicting anywhere from 3 to 12 inches of snow,” Mamdani said at a press conference Thursday.
“It is entirely possible that we get less than three inches — and it is just as possible that we get over a foot,” he said. “New Yorkers know that forecasts do not always get it right.”
He said the city will begin a “pre-snow treatment” on Friday to prepare for the storm.
“What that means is that we will brine all highways, major streets, and bike lanes to mitigate snow and ice accumulation, and we are also going to accelerate cleanup once the storm has passed,” he said.
He added that “roughly 2,000 sanitation workers” will work 12-hour shifts Saturday to “remove snow around the clock.”
“ As we speak, our sanitation fleet is being transformed into a snow-clearing fleet,” he said.
New Yorkers on Thursday scrambled to buy shovels and sidewalk salt to prepare for the storm as some Manhattan shops were nearly sold out.
“They’re out of Icemelt, so it’s a little bit of a panic,” said one Manhattan building super, who settled for a 12-pound jar of another brand. “That’s all they had. This is enough for now.”
An employee at Home Depot on West 23rd Street near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan said the store was low on rock salt because there was a big demand for it in other parts of the country.
Source : https://nypost.com/2026/01/22/us-news/monster-storm-could-dump-up-to-16-inches-of-snow-on-nyc/
