New York City has imposed a travel ban from 9 p.m. Sunday to noon Monday as a powerful nor’easter rapidly intensifies into a bomb cyclone, bringing up to 24 inches of heavy snow, damaging winds, and blizzard conditions across the Northeast, officials and forecasters from the National Weather Service (NWS) and AccuWeather said.
This is the first time in nine years that New York City has been under a blizzard warning.
The New York Winter Storm
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a citywide travel ban for all non‑essential vehicles, with exceptions for essential workers, during a press conference on Sunday afternoon, which was streamed live.
He said, “We are asking New Yorkers to avoid all nonessential travel.”
“Combined with daytime temperatures slipping above freezing and overnight lows dropping to the low 20s, the snowfall will melt, then refreeze, resulting in dangerously icy sidewalks and streets,” he added.
The travel ban covers all streets, highways, and bridges for non‑emergency traffic, as officials prepared themselves for intense overnight snowfall and strong winds.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul also declared a state of emergency on Sunday, urging people not to travel due to the dangerous winter weather conditions, saying, “you need to hear this from me, someone who’s been through more blizzards than any governor in the history of the state of New York. This is one to take seriously.”
As a safety precaution, Mamdani said that all New York schools will be closed on Monday—for the first time since 2019—saying, during his press conference, “to kids across New York City, you have a very serious mission, if you choose to accept it: Stay cozy.”
NWS forecasters have predicted that between 16 and 24 inches of snow is expected to fall across “the entire area” of New York by Monday evening, with 1 to 2 inches expected to fall per hour. Winds reaching up to 60 mph are also forecast through Monday, with up to 75 mph possible over the twin forks of Long Island and New London counties.
It has issued the following warning for New York: “Blizzard conditions with dangerous to impossible travel tonight into Mon AM from heavy snowfall, blowing/drifting snow, whiteout conditions, and damaging winds. Scattered to numerous downed tree limbs are likely and power outages possible due to snow load and strong winds.”
Meteorologist at the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center, Cody Snell, told CBS News that “While we do get plenty of these nor’easters that produce heavy snow and strong impacts, it’s been several years since we saw one of this magnitude across this large a region.”
What Happens Next
Snow was forecast to taper from late Monday morning into the afternoon, but strong winds and coastal flooding risks were expected to persist, complicating cleanup and prolonging transit disruptions across the region.
