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NYC weather: Snowstorm closes schools, causes transit service changes

While a bit slushy, the city returned to normal Wednesday morning after getting hit by snow and sleet on Tuesday. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio lifted the state of emergency at midnight, but warned Tuesday afternoon that road conditions could still be dangerous. The MTA restored subway and bus service with a few detours and residual delays.

Snow and sleet totals from the National Weather Service ranged from just 4 inches in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, to 8.8 inches in Parkchester, the Bronx. As of 2 p.m., 7.2 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park, while Kennedy Airport measured 4.7 inches and LaGuardia Airport had 7.2 inches, per the weather agency. 

There is a chance of scattered snow showers on Wednesday, but little to no accumulation is expected, the NWS said. It will be mostly cloudy with a high temperature of 29 degrees. 

During a Tuesday afternoon news conference announcing that public schools would be open Wednesday, de Blasio said 96% of city streets had been plowed at least once. Crews were expected to continue working through Tuesday night.

The road conditions and lack of above-ground train service, however, didn’t stop many New Yorkers from trying to get to work on Tuesday. 

Arthur Mednick, 58, of Kensington, Brooklyn, said he was considering a 3-mile hike to get to a train just so he could get to his job as a dockworker at the Staten Island Ferry. 

“I don’t know what I’m going to do yet,” he said. “I can’t get there any other way.” 

Above-ground subway service was restored at 6 p.m., after it had been suspended for most of the day Tuesday. Partial service on the Metro-North Railroad, which was suspended at noon, also resumed at that time.

As the first few F trains rolled into the Church Avenue station in Brooklyn, straphangers noted that service was a slower than usual.

“It was definitely slower. The R crawled through, but the F was a bit faster,” said Erica Green, 27, of Kensington.

Green said it took her three trains and 90 minutes to get home from midtown Manhattan. Usually it takes 45 minutes and two trains.

She did note, however, that the tracks looked clear of ice and snow: “I’m sure the MTA had a lot of people clean the tracks to make sure it was safe.”

With Alison Fox, Vincent Barone and Ivan Pereira