New York Today: Latest Updates on the Snowstorm

Commute forecast: March Madness.CreditKevin Hagen for The New York Times
By Jonathan Wolfe
March 21, 2018
Updated, 1:02 p.m.

Good morning on this white Wednesday.

For a look at your evening commute and updates on how the storm is affecting the entire Northeast, read The Times’s live briefing.

Happy four’easter.

The region’s fourth nor’easter this month arrives today.

By Thursday, we could have up to 12 to 18 inches of snow in the city. Snow totals drop the farther you move from the city, with 12 to 15 inches expected in parts of Westchester, New Jersey and Long Island.

“The heaviest snowfall amounts will be right in and around New York City,” said Bill Goodman, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service.

We’ll help you navigate both commutes today, updating conditions through the evening here. At the moment, the morning commute is looking stable.
ADVERTISEMENT
• Long Island Rail Road and the subway are operating on normal schedules.

• Metro-North, New Jersey Transit and Amtrak are operating on limited schedules.

• More than 2,350 area flights have been canceled. La Guardia expects to cancel all flights after noon. American Airlines will suspend flight operations at Newark after 11 a.m. and at Kennedy after 1 p.m. Check your flight at La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark before you head to the airport.

• The Staten Island Ferry is running on a regular schedule. NY Waterway and Seastreak ferries are running on modified schedules. The Rockaway NYC Ferry route is canceled today.

A winter storm warning is in effect. For those of you who don’t speak meteorologese, that means snow, sleet and ice will make traveling difficult, and at times nearly impossible, today. New York City schools are closed for the day.
Image
Plan on a messy trip home from work.CreditKevin Hagen for The New York Times
The heaviest snowfall is expected this afternoon, when it could fall at a rate of one to two inches an hour. Plan on a messy trip home from work.
“It may seem kind of quaint in the morning, but it’s going to get a lot worse as the day goes by,” said John Homenuk, a meteorologist at New York Metro Weather.

The temperature will hover around freezing, and strong wind gusts of nearly 40 miles an hour could make it feel as cold as 15 degrees.

If the forecast holds, this could be the biggest spring snowstorm in our city’s history.

New York City’s largest snowstorm after the vernal equinox was on April 3, 1915, when 10 inches fell.

ADVERTISEMENT
This nor’easter is forecast to drop more snow on New York City than the previous storms this month, the last of which killed two people and left hundreds of thousands in the region without power. Power failures are possible throughout the day. Broadway shows will go on as planned, but city libraries are shuttered today.

Like earlier this month, we could see some thundersnow, and lots of sleet. What is sleet, exactly?

“Sometimes what happens is that, in between a cloud that’s producing snowflakes and the ground, you get a layer of warm air,” Mr. Homenuk said. “The snowflake from the cloud melts into a raindrop in the warm layer, and then passes back into freezing air, and then it refreezes into like an ice pellet.”

(Unlike freezing rain, which freezes after it hits the ground.)

“When it’s sleeting, you will know,” he added. “Sleet stings. It pings you. It’s not as gentle as a snowflake.”
Here’s what else is happening:

In the News