New York Ends 701-Day Stretch Without Significant Snowfall

New York City finally got its snow back.

The most significant snowfall in nearly two years began covering the city late Monday, with neighborhoods expected to see an average of three inches by late Tuesday morning, according to a forecast from the National Weather Service.

As of 7 a.m., there was 1.4 inches of snow in Central Park, according to the weather service — 0.4 inches falling before midnight, and one inch after. That broke a streak of 701 days of no meaningful snowfall on a single day. The last time there was significant snow in the park was Feb. 13, 2022, when 1.6 inches fell.

Another inch of snow was expected by the end of Tuesday, said Dominic Ramunni, a meteorologist for the service. Conditions for the morning and evening commute could be tricky, he added. “This afternoon is going to freeze pretty hard,” he said.

The snow was brought by a low-pressure system that was moving up from the South on Monday afternoon, said James Tomasini, another meteorologist with theservice. According to the forecast, that system would move off the coast of North Carolina and South Carolina and pass north and east of New York City by late Tuesday afternoon into the early evening.

“The snow’s going to start well ahead of it,” Mr. Tomasini said on Monday afternoon, and he forecast that it would continue through early Tuesday. “After much of the snow has fallen, there could be a changeover to some mixed rain and snow, and then over to rain, even actually a possibility of a little bit of freezing rain.” The city was expected to dry out by Tuesday evening.

The previous record for the city going without a significant snowfall — which is measured by at least one inch in a 24-hour period in Central Park — was 400 days, which ended back on March 21, 1998, according to Mr. Tomasini.

Central Park typically has about 24 inches of snow over the course of the entire winter. But last year’s mild winter brought, in total, only 2.3 inches of snow, the smallest amount recorded there since record keeping started in 1869.

Storm systems typically have a warmer and a colder side. Last year, New York ended up on the warmer side of most storms, resulting in less snowfall.

Mr. Tomasini said that last year’s weather pattern had been unusual, and this year was already shaping up to be more snowy. “It looks unlikely that the type of winter we had last year would happen again,” he said.

“There’s already another chance of snow for the end of the week because we’ve been in this active pattern,” he added.

Isabella Kwai contributed reporting.