“This Is Amazing”: NYC looks forward to its first major snowstorm in years

The much-hyped first winter storm of the pandemic era landed in New York on Wednesday evening, dumping nearly a foot of snow on parts of the five boroughs, wreaking havoc on the roads and quickly turning this dingy old town into a pristine winter. wonderland.

City estimates Central Park saw 8.5 inches at night, with totals averaging between 10.5 inches in the Bronx to just 6 inches in parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn. While accumulations are at the bottom of the forecast so far, New Yorkers woke up Thursday to more snow than we’ve seen in nearly five years.

“This is great,” exclaimed Cecil Schieb, taking his son to play near Tompkins Square Park on Wednesday night. “It felt like we never had a real blizzard last year, he put snow angels on the concrete with a layer of snow.”

The snow – of the powdery but also sticky kind, ideal for snowballs – is still flickering from the sky and is expected to subside later this morning. It will stay cold for hours after that, so be careful out there avoid seemingly frozen lakestempting as they may be.

On Wednesday evening, six people were injured in a 27-car car accident that closed all lanes south of the Henry Hudson Parkway. There were no weather-related disruptions in the metro system.

When the snow started to snow in the evening, several delivery drivers left their bikes and chose to speed up orders on foot.

“When you have the icy ice, it’s much easier to slide off the road,” said Chris, a 25-year-old Door Dash employee. “I absolutely don’t want to be hit by a car, I’ve been hit by a car five times.”

On Thursday morning, a group of volunteers helped clear the sidewalks outside several shuttered Chinatown businesses. For the most part, the city’s outdoor dining options seemed to have held overnight.

“If it rips, it rips,” said Vinny Sgarlato, shaking the snow off the tent at his Elf B restaurant. “We’ll be worried about it next year.”

In Central Park and elsewhere, sleds of all ages, clucking with joy, flew down hills. A group of downhill skiers and snowboarders also tried their luck on the Williamsburg Bridge late Wednesday, slowly descending the sidewalk as they shook a gloved fist at the Department of Transportation snowplow that had hit them there.