Blizzard warnings have been issued for New York City, New Jersey, and coastal communities along the East Coast, as a late-winter storm poised to arrive on Sunday threatens to severely disrupt the start of the new week.
The National Weather Service significantly upgraded its assessment of the storm’s potential severity, having projected a less ferocious impact just days earlier. Forecasters now anticipate between one to two feet (30 and 61 centimetres) of snow in many areas, with blizzard warnings in effect for New York City, Long Island, southern Connecticut, and coastal regions of New Jersey and Delaware. Flooding is also a possibility in parts of New York and New Jersey.
The storm is expected to begin quietly on Sunday, potentially with rainfall in some locations, before intensifying. The heaviest snowfall is forecast for Sunday night, with some areas experiencing up to 5 centimetres (two inches) of snow per hour, before tapering off by Monday afternoon.
The weather service warned that steady winds of between 40 and 56 kilometres per hour (25-35 mph) would “make travel dangerous, if not impossible,” adding that “scattered downed tree limbs and power outages possible due to snow load and strong winds.”
This impending weather event arrives just as the icy remnants of a snowstorm that struck the region weeks prior were finally melting away.
“Snow starts Sunday morning, intensifies at night, and will make the Monday morning commute extremely dangerous. Stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary. If you can stay home, stay home,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on X.
