It has been an unusually snowless winter in New York City.
In fact, the metro region has yet to receive its first measurable snowfall this winter — defined as at least 0.1 inches. If that continues until Sunday, it will match a record set in the winter of 1973, when the area went snowless until Jan. 29.
While two winter storms have dropped a considerable amount of powder upstate — western New York was hit hard by a late-December blizzard, with 51.9 inches recorded in the Buffalo region, resulting in at least 40 deaths — New York’s precipitation has been limited to rain.
Dan Cole, 71, a native Midwesterner now living in Queens, said on Monday that he grew up around lots of snow and was unbothered by this season’s trend, though he’s hopeful his grandsons, ages 2 and 5, will get to experience snow soon.
“So we can make a snowman, like we do every year,” Mr. Cole said, holding an umbrella; while there was close to a foot of snow upstate on Monday, it rained all morning and into the early afternoon in the city.
The lack of snowfall, according to Dave Radell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service of New York, has resulted from the tracks of recent storms: Their centers were north and west of the city, while temperatures were warmer in the five boroughs.
“We don’t have a lot of cold air hanging around,” Mr. Radell said. “The cold air is further up to the north, where they’ve had snow.”
John Brooke, 71, has lived in New York for 35 years but said he hardly recognizes the city now. “Back in the 70s, I lived in New Orleans,” Mr. Brooke said. “That’s what it’s like here now. It feels like I’m in New Orleans.”
The lack of snow so far is not likely to have any long-term consequences for New York, because there’s been plenty of rain, said Brian Ciemnecki, also a meteorologist for National Weather Service of New York.
“If we were not getting precipitation, this would be a totally different story, because then we’d be talking about drought,” he said.
There’s still a chance, however, that the city might not reach that 50-year record on Jan. 29. Meteorologists say the winter storm Kassandra could move into the New York area on Wednesday and bring one to two inches of snow.
Last winter, New York recorded 17.7 inches of measurable snowfall, down from the average of 29.8 inches. The first date of measurable snowfall was Dec. 24, 2021.
New York is also approaching its longest streak of consecutive days without measurable snowfall. Since March 9, 2022, it’s been 320 days without snow so far, and the record, which was set in 2020, was 332 days between Jan. 18-Dec. 15.
