Good morning, it’s Monday.
I’m not sure what I was thinking when I toyed with the idea that spring might finally be peaking its head out of the closet.
I mean, technically speaking, spring isn’t all that far away. The vernal equinox – March 20 (at 10:46 a.m., to be exact) – will be here before you know it.
Also, not to further bust my own wishful thinking bubble, but it has been known to snow in the Albany area well into spring – in April and even May. In 2002, for example, a May 18 storm dumped up to 8 inches of heavy, wet snow on the Capital Region.
Snow in late February is not even a little surprising or out of the ordinary. I think that spate of sub-freezing weather just sapped me somehow, leaving me extra sensitive to the vagaries of winter and simply DONE with the cold and the wet and the gray everything.
A winter weather advisory is in effect from 7 p.m. today through tomorrow at 7 p.m. We could see up to another foot of snow accumulation, with snow falling of a rate of up to 2 inches per hour in some locations, and wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour. This actually doesn’t sound so bad when you compare it to the forecast further downstate and to our east.
New York City, which is still dealing with the remnants of the last big dump, could see up to 20 inches of snow. Long Island and coastal Connecticut and Boston are also likely to get hit very hard. The whole area is under a blizzard warning, with dangerous whiteout conditions possible.
The forecast has been shifting around a lot, but that is the nature of a nor’easter, which is what we’re in for here. First, let’s set the table by saying that a nor’easter is strictly an Eats Coast phenomenon (lucky us). It is a powerful, large-scale extratropical cyclone that forms somewhere between Georgia and New Jersey and travels up north, up the cost to Canada.
Nor’easter season is typically from September to April, though these storms, which bring heavy and wet snow, severe coastal flooding and strong winds can happen at any time. They are essentially a mash-up of cold dry air out of Canada and moist air from the Atlantic Ocean – particularly the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream.
It is the cold core of these storms that makes them so unique, and so dangerous.
Nor’easters are hard to forecast because a relatively small shift (from a meteorological perspective) of 50 to 100 miles in the storm’s path can be the difference between snow and rain. A difference of a few degrees can matter a lot when it comes to precipitation totals.
Nor’easters move very quickly and intensify as they, which makes it even hard to predict exactly where they will be traveling and how hard they’ll hit when they land.
That rapid intensification is called bombogenesis, (technically, when a storm’s central pressure drops by at least 24 millibars within 24 hours) – a phenomenon that is more commonly known as a “bomb cyclone.”
The so-called “battleground” location for nor’easters is the I-95 corridor, which stretches from Miami, Florida to the Canadian border and connects a number of major cities, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, PA, New York, and Boston, MA. I-95 is the boundary between colder inland air and the (relatively) warmer air coming off the Atlantic.
According to the maps I’ve seen thus far, Albany is right on the line between expecting 4 to 6 inches and 6 to 8 inches of accumulation. Hopefully, it will hew closer to the former than the latter, but only time will tell. Stay safe, and stay inside if you can.
In the headlines…
Over 35 million people from eastern Maryland to eastern Massachusetts have been under blizzard warnings from yesterday into today. The storm is expected to drop snow at a rate of one to three or more inches per hour and make travel “near impossible.”
About 3,500 domestic and international flights in the United States had been canceled by yesterday afternoon, more than six times the number that were canceled the day before, according to FlightAware.
As of 1 a.m., more than 200,000 customers in the Mid-Atlantic region were without power, mostly in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania, according to poweroutage.us.
By early this morning, parts of New Jersey and New York had received a foot of snow within 12 hours. In total, more than two feet of snow is expected to fall in parts of New England, and the New York City region could receive at least 18 inches.
The storm has also crippled mass transit in parts of the region. NJ Transit’s bus, train and light rail operations are completely stopped. In New York, the Long Island Rail Road shut down at 1 a.m.
President Trump reportedly told advisers that if diplomacy or any initial targeted U.S. attack does not lead Iran to give in to his demands that it give up its nuclear program, he will consider a bigger attack intended to drive the country’s leaders from power.
An armed man was shot and killed by law enforcement officers, including Secret Service agents, after he entered the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Fla., early yesterday morning, authorities announced.
Austin Tucker Martin, 21, of Cameron, North Carolina, sneaked into the secure perimeter around the club by driving through a gate while another vehicle was coming out, authorities said. Trump was in Washington, not Mar-a-Lago, at the time.
Martin was a recent high school graduate who last year started an artwork company that specialized in handmade drawings of golf courses. Martin’s family members, including his mother, had posted on Facebook throughout the weekend that he was missing.
The Supreme Court delivered a major blow to Trump, ruling Friday that he exceeded his authority when imposing sweeping tariffs using a law reserved for a national emergency.
The Supreme Court may have ruled 6-3 against Trump’s use of an international emergency law to impose tariffs. But he seems intent on continuing the experiment.
The Trump administration signaled that it was on track to resurrect many of its punishing tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court, insisting that the new approach would fulfill President Trump’s trade ambitions in a more legally durable way.
Trump appeared to wade anew into the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, calling on Netflix, one of the suitors, to fire a member of its board, Susan Rice.
The TSA said yesterday that its PreCheck program would remain operational despite an earlier announcement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the airport security service was being suspended during the partial government shutdown.
“As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case by case basis and adjust operations accordingly,” the agency said, after initially sparking confusion for travelers when it said it was temporarily halting the popular service.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in the statement early yesterday that the department was making “tough but necessary work force and resource decisions,” and accused Democrats who withheld funding support from the agency of endangering national security.
Noem added that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would “halt all non-disaster related response to prioritize disasters.” A major snowstorm was expected to pummel the East Coast on Sunday.
The USA’s Olympics gold medal drought is over, and the U.S. men’s hockey team did it on the anniversary of another watershed moment.
Jack Hughes, 24, drained the game-winning goal to lift Team USA over Canada, 2-1, in an overtime instant-classic that secured the country’s first gold medal in Olympic men’s hockey since 1980.
Hughes had been high-sticked in the third period and appeared to lose a tooth. He joins brother Quinn with key overtime goals in the 2026 Winter Olympics. “This is all about our country right now. I love the U.S.A. I love my teammates, it’s unbelievable,” he said.
A powerful winter storm prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency for 20 counties last night starting at 4 pm, warning of blizzard-like conditions, up to a foot of snow and strong winds.
The state of emergency covers Albany, Bronx, Columbia, Greene, Delaware, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, Schenectady, Schoharie, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties.
Hochul suspended state liquor laws so bars could open early to broadcast the Olympic men’s gold medal hockey game between the United States and Canada — but not in New York City, because it was under a state of emergency due to the coming blizzard.
“I still remember watching the 1980 game as a college student at Syracuse University, working in a pizza shop. The whole place stopped and watched together. I hope a new generation of New Yorkers gets that same moment tomorrow,” Hochul said.
The widows of fallen police officers killed in the line of duty in New York could get up to a 50% off on their property taxes thanks to a new law Hochul signed in December, though cities and towns where police widows live still have to approve the rebate.
The state university system is on track to stop running a deficit in a decade — and only if it keeps increasing its enrollment by nearly 3% each year, according to its latest financial report.
The state and two companies want a judge to toss a lawsuit alleging they violated residents’ right to clean air, water and a healthy environment when the companies cut trees near Loon Lake in Franklin County.
A Denver-based engineering firm will catalogue and create maintenance plans for New York state’s alpine, Nordic and skating facilities in the coming months as well as strategic planning at a cost of $3 million.
New Yorkers across the city let out a collective groan as the city got walloped by a blizzard, just as the filthy ice from last month’s snowstorm was finally melting away.
For the second time in weeks, the New York City government is mustering an armada of plows, salters, shovelers, homeless outreach teams and emergency medical workers in anticipation of a powerful winter storm.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared a state of emergency as a blizzard bore down on New York City. All streets, highways and bridges will be closed until noon today. Only essential and emergency vehicles will be allowed to travel city streets until noon today.
Mamdnani announced New York City’s first full school snow day — with no remote learning — in years, breaking the news on social media, with a video of a FaceTime call between him and an eighth-grade girl named Victoria who attends public school in Brooklyn.
It’s the first true snow day the New York City school system has seen in seven years.
Mamdani’s plan to hike city property taxes by 9.5% could be a double whammy for residents in the increasingly unaffordable Big Apple — as the plan could send electric and gas bills soaring.
Councilmember Oswald Feliz, a Bronx Democrat who chairs the Committee on Public Safety, warned that Mamdani’s decision not to add 5,000 cops to the ranks of the NYPD could make New Yorkers less safe.
Mamdani opposes requiring ID’s to vote, but mandates five forms of identification to shovel snow. He called on New Yorkers to sign up to become emergency snow shovelers Saturday, telling them to show up to a local sanitation garage with required paperwork.
Mamdani is reported considering installing a radical activist — who wants to abolish Child Protective Services — to lead the city’s welfare agency for children. Angela Burton is in the final stages of interviews to lead the Administration of Children’s Services.
Democratic Brooklyn Councilwoman Crystal Hudson is hoping the third time’s a charm with Mamdani now NYC mayor as she pushes legislation that could give “young people” carte blanche to commit crimes without fear of being arrested.
The head of a drone-manufacturing company whose clients include the Israel Defense Forces said his business is being booted from the city-run Brooklyn Navy Yard because of Mamdani’s “pro-Palestine” agenda.
Voters gave Mamdani new powers to speed up housing development by approving a series of ballot measures in November. Now he is showing how he will use them.
A coalition of state lawmakers and small business groups want to build on Mamdani’s campaign pledge to “freeze the rent” and extend rent control to commercial properties like bodegas and mom-and-pop shops.
Mamdani on Friday announced an enforcement push by the city to crack down on employers that might be violating the city’s worker protection laws, days before a new law takes effect expanding time-off protections for more than five million New Yorkers.
Hunter College, a top public university in New York City, said that it would review whether “abhorrent remarks” made by a professor at a public meeting violated the institution’s policies.
NewYork-Presbyterian nurses have ratified a new three-year contract, ending the largest and longest walkout by nurses in New York City history, the nurses’ union announced on Saturday evening. The agreement was backed by 93% of the nurses voting.
The decision by the more than 4,000 nurses brings to a close the largest — and longest — nurses’ strike in New York City in decades.
As melting snow reveals weeks’ worth of uncollected dog waste, frustration at the state of the city’s sidewalks has boiled over.
New York City sports radio legend and former voice of the New York Yankees John Sterling had a heart attack in early January, he said in a WFAN interview with host Rickie Ricardo yesterday.
Jennifer Fasulo, a Spanish teacher at Charles W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville, a Syracuse suburb, was placed on a paid leave of absence just weeks after she offered to help students establish a Club America, the high school division of Turning Point USA.
The ex-CUNY professor who once held a machete to the neck of a New York Post reporter now has a permanent, taxpayer-funded art installation in the Bronx.
Only 775 of the nearly 600,000 potentially eligible Con Edison customers have enrolled for the state’s expanded energy assistance program since it opened last month, the company said.
Self-driving Waymos made an appearance in the City of Albany recently, but won’t be setting up shot permanently any time soon.
The city’s forlorn, squalid bus station is on the way out. In its stead could be a “multi-modal transit station” at the site of the former South End Grocery store at 106 S. Pearl St.
After years of enrollment decline, the Scotia-Glenville school district is closing one of its four elementary schools.
Lawyers for Lorenz Kraus want the television news interview in which he admitted to killing and burying his elderly parents kept out of his upcoming murder trial because it was attended by at least one State Police investigator disguised as a news photojournalist.
The founder of a longtime Albany flower shop is facing a kidnapping charge amid allegations he trapped, bound, and choked a woman for hours last month in his home above the business.
he foul odor and taste of Clifton Park’s municipal water was expected to be gone by the weekend’s end, according to the town’s Water Authority.
A sizable paper industrial complex in the south end of the City of Cohoes has hit the market. Two Saratoga Street buildings long home to Mohawk Fine Papers, a subsidiary of Italy-based Fedrigoni Group, are for sale, according to an online listing.
The stage is set for a Schenectady City Council primary now that local Democratic Party members have endorsed Rachael Ward over Justin Chaires, the incumbent who made clear that he plans to fight to hold onto the seat he was appointed to in December.
Former Republican Wilton Town Supervisor John Lant, who suspended his bid to recapture his seat, is backing his former deputy to replace him next year.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
