EVEN DOGS LOVE IT | This combination of pictures shows the vista of Brooklyn Bridge amid the skyline of lower Manhattan as photographed on Feb. 2, 2021, (top) and on Jan. 25, 2023, (bottom). The city’s snowless streak has New Yorkers suddenly “missing it,” said a resident. (Agence France-Presse)
NEW YORK — The idea of the Big Apple in wintertime conjures up images of Manhattan’s Times Square and Central Park shrouded in snow. But not this year.
New York is forecast on Sunday to surpass a 50-year record for the latest first snowfall of the season. It is also close to recording its highest number of consecutive days without any measurable flakes.
The snowless streak has residents puzzled.
“It’s really sad,” said retired teacher Anne Hansen. “Basically, we don’t like to see the snow. But now, we’re sorely missing it.”
The city usually gets its first dusting around mid-December. Last season, it arrived on Christmas Eve.
“You stay home, you drink hot cocoa; it’s beautiful and the dog loves it,” filmmaker Renata Romain said.
Meteorologists define snowfall in New York as measuring at least 0.1 inches in Central Park. Some flakes fell last Wednesday but not enough to count.
The longest residents have had to wait for measurable snow is Jan. 29, a record set in 1973, according to the National Weather Service.
No snow Sunday will mean the longest wait since records began in 1869.
The city is also approaching its longest streak of consecutive days without snow.
The current record is 332, which ended on Dec. 15, 2020. Sunday would be day 326.
Accuweather has called the period a “snow drought.”
Scientists say climate change is causing winters to be warmer and shorter.
New York has never gone a whole cold season without measurable snow. With February usually its snowiest month, a white blanket may yet envelop the Big Apple soon.
“That’s what makes New York, New York, right?” Romain said.