New York shivers in one of the most severe winters since the Gilded Age
Only three in history have endured a colder stretch with more snow
New York City is enduring its most bitter winter in decades due to a peculiar mix of bitter cold and heavy snow, and before then not since horse-drawn carriages traversed its streets during the Gilded Age.
While the winter started unremarkably, a snowstorm on January 25 led to temperatures plummeting through the rest of the month as Arctic air driven by the polar vortex flowed down over the east coast.
The polar vortex is usually kept in check by the jet stream, which is a band of air circulating the globe. However, a weakening or meandering of the jet stream means that the high and low-pressure atmospheric systems that it governs can be extended or stall, leading to prolonged extreme conditions.
There is a lack of agreement among scientists about the links between the recent shifts in patterns of the polar jet stream and polar vortex and climate change.
During a particularly cold snap at the end of January, the city’s weekly moving average of high temperatures was minus 6C — well below the bounds of historical expectation. For nine days the temperature never rose above freezing.
This frigid stretch was colder than any found in all but a handful of past winters, and most of those were in the late 19th century, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Records from the official weather station in Central Park date to 1869.
The latest February blizzard led to a state of emergency and a travel ban that closed streets due to “dangerous blizzard conditions”.
New York schoolchildren celebrated their first snow day in several years and adults used whatever implements they could find — shovels, brooms, umbrellas — to dislodge cars from kerbsides. Snowmen proliferated in the city’s parks and mayor Zohran Mamdani cautioned residents against the throwing of snowballs at police officers.
In total, Winter Storm Hernando, a “bomb cyclone”, dumped about half a metre of snow on Central Park across two days in February. The amount of snow pushed a second winter metric to the edge of historical normalcy.
Only three winters in the officially recorded weather history of the city — those ending in 1873, 1888 and 1961 — have seen both a colder stretch and more snow.
On December 27 1872, the front page of The New York Times declared “The Great Storm — Eighteen Hours of Wind and Snow”. There was then a general suspension of railway and steamboat travel.
“The scenes in Broadway were quite amusing,” it continued, “for the snow made pedestrianism a difficult proceeding, and tumbles were frequent.” The scene was similar this past weekend.
The winter is not over yet and daily high temperatures in New York City are mostly expected to remain above freezing, but more snow is forecast this week and next.