A major winter storm will likely hit New York City this weekend, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday the city is leaving nothing to chance.
Mamdani said the Sanitation Department would begin pretreating the city’s highways, major streets, and bike lanes with brine on Friday to prevent ice and snow buildup in advance of the storm.
On Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service (NWS) put New York City under a winter storm watch from late Saturday night, Jan. 24, through Monday afternoon, Jan. 26. The bureau forecasts that most of the city will receive between 6 and 12 inches of snow, with amounts exceeding 12 inches in some spots.
The storm is expected to arrive on the heels of an extreme cold snap that will bear down on the Big Apple Friday night. Temperatures will drop into the teens and remain there throughout the day Saturday; in fact, the NWS does not expect temperatures to get above freezing through at least next Wednesday.
With brutal winter weather on the horizon, Mamdani said Thursday is the day to do any last-minute preparations.
“My recommendation to New Yorkers is if you’re interested in buying some groceries or getting a new winter coat, today is the day I would recommend you do so,” the mayor advised during an unrelated press conference at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn. “Do not leave it until the weekend.”
The Sanitation Department is currently hard at work transforming its fleet of garbage trucks into snow plows and loading up other rigs with salt to spread on the streets. Mamdani said that roughly 2,000 Sanitation workers will begin 12-hour shifts on Saturday morning, manning the fleet of plows and salt spreaders to make the rounds across every corner of the five boroughs.
“We are going to be able to hit every single part of our city with multiple passes,” Hizzoner said. “And once a couple of inches of snow have fallen, snow plows will begin operating across the city.”
Ahead of the cold snap coming in tomorrow, the mayor declared a citywide Code Blue. Teams of outreach workers will connect with homeless individuals and other New Yorkers vulnerable to the elements and get them to a warm shelter.
A decision on whether public schools will be open on Monday remains unknown, given the fluid forecasts. Mamdani explained Thursday that the city would do everything it could to keep the schools open for Monday morning, and a final decision would be made later this weekend that will be “clearly and directly” communicated to families and students.
But even if schools are closed Monday, that does not necessarily mean students will have the day off. On Wednesday, Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels told Pix11 that classes would likely shift to remote learning in the event of a weather-related closure.
It all comes down to how much of the white stuff the city receives. And while Mamdani acknowledged that forecasters have gotten it wrong before, the city will nonetheless be ready for whatever Mother Nature brings.
“New Yorkers know that forecasts do not always get it right,” the mayor said. “While we cannot control how much snow will actually fall this weekend, we can control how we prepare for and respond to this storm.”
During the storm, you can track where and when the city’s plows and salt spreaders have traveled on the PlowNYC tracker.
