NEW YORK — After almost a year with no measurable snowfall, New York City’s snow drought ended Wednesday after a light dusting of wintry mix.
According to the National Weather Service, 0.4 inches of snow was measured at Central Park, ending the city’s 328-day snowless streak. The city was four days away from breaking the record of 332 days with no snow, which lasted Jan. 19-Dec. 15, 2020.
It also marked the latest date in the winter for the city to see snow. The previous record date was Jan. 29, 1973. That winter had the lowest amount of snow on record: 2.8 inches.
Record keeping started in 1869, the NWS said. A tenth of an inch of accumulation is considered “measurable.”
The snow comes a day after the city went all of January with above-average temperatures.
“We’re on pace for one of the warmest Januarys in recorded history in New York,” Bob Larson, a senior meteorologist for AccuWeather, told the Daily News on Sunday.
“It hasn’t been warm the entire winter. You think back to the holidays and how cold it was around Christmastime, but the few times it has gotten cold, there just simply haven’t been any storms. ... It just hasn’t come together. We haven’t had storms at the right time.”
However, the city may just be starting a new streak. A cold snap is set to hit later this week, with temperatures dipping into the single digits, but no additional precipitation is expected until the middle of next week when temperatures will climb back up to the 50s.
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