A powerful winter storm racing toward the region is forecast to blanket the New York City area with as much as 18 inches of snow by early Sunday, bringing in bone-chilling temperatures and creating major travel disruptions across the tri-state area. "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." Snow is forecast to begin sometime between midnight and early Sunday morning and could last into Monday, creating hazardous road conditions and forcing flight cancellations, according to Kines. New York City could see as much as 16 inches of accumulation.
Bracing for Big Storm
Parts of the Hudson Valley may get up to 18 inches — amounts that could rival the region's biggest storm 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.
Kines said snow hitting other parts of the country — including cities like Dallas and Charlotte — is also expected to trigger widespread flight delays, with ripple effects reaching New York City and airports nationwide.
"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."
Forecasters warned that the massive winter storm is likely to cause major disruptions for millions of people across about 35 states, with regions east of the Rockies taking the biggest hit.
In New York City, where temperatures are already hovering in the teens, snowfall is expected to taper off by around noon Monday at the latest, Kines said. But the cold won't be going anywhere. Temperatures are set to plunge to around 11 degrees on Friday and are not expected to climb above freezing until Wednesday, Feb. 4.
Relief No Time Soon
There is at least one small silver lining: the snow is expected to be dry and fluffy, making it a bit easier to shovel, Kines noted. If the city ends up seeing a foot of snow or more, it would mark New York's heaviest snowfall since February 2021, when Central Park recorded 16.8 inches over two days.
Kines said a more likely outcome is that the storm shifts farther north, leaving the city with a lighter — though still disruptive — 4 to 8 inches of snow.
Across the wider tri-state area, forecasters expect totals of 8 to 12 inches, stretching from the Hudson Valley through much of New Jersey and into Connecticut.
Even with those projections, Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned that it's too early to know exactly how hard the storm will hit the city.
"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 start pre-snow treatments on Friday, taking early steps to get roads and infrastructure ready ahead of 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.
