New York City sees biggest snowfall of season, grounding flights

New York City and the Northeast had a slushy start Tuesday as a storm brought the first significant snowfall of the season to the region, grounding hundreds of flights.

Manhattan’s Central Park got 1.8 inches (5 centimeters) overnight, with precipitation likely switching over to rain for the rest of the day, said Rob Carolan, Bloomberg Radio meteorologist and owner of Hometown Forecast Services. 

While a modest accumulation historically for New York, it’s the biggest so far this winter. Snow has been nearly non-existent this season, with the city breaking a 50-year-old record in January for the longest stretch without measurable snow. That’s in part thanks to a La Nina in the Pacific Ocean and a kink in the jet stream that’s pushing storms in the US Northeast away from the coast. 

About 5 inches fell in The Bronx. Queens got 2.5 inches. Areas to the north and west of the city could get upwards to 8 inches, as well as parts of southern New England, according to the National Weather Service. 

Across the US, more than 450 flights were canceled as of 9:15 a.m. New York time, with almost 300 of them going in or out of New York area airports, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking service. Boston also had 84 flights scrubbed and Toronto reported 52 halted.

More snow is possible later this week, but exact amounts aren’t clear yet. 

While it’s the deepest snow of the season, “it’s still not much,” said Bryan Ramsey, a National Weather Service meteorologist in New York. “Anything else we see, at least in New York City, will be liquid.”