February 14th, 2022. That was the last time New York City received snowfall, before this past January 16th. A great amount of time that saw the City change so much. However, questions need to be asked. Why is this? In every movie or piece of pop culture, you think of New York in the winter as having a fun, vibrant winter atmosphere with snow all over. In spite of that, this will likely hold a new record for a long time.
New data from the New York Times stated between 2000-2020, the average annual snowfall in Central Park was 29.8 inches throughout the winter. It shows that it is very evident there is a decrease in snowfall amounts. The 2022-23 winter season received a total of 2.3 inches, a decrease of over 90%! On top of this, January 16th, 2024, was the first time Central Park received an accumulated snowfall of over 1 inch. This should turn eyebrows and make people wonder, why is this?
Experts predict this streak won’t be broken, as it nearly doubled the 400-day-long streak between 1997 and 1998. Meteorologist James Tomasini recently spoke about this in the New York Times:
“It looks unlikely that the type of winter we had last year would happen again.” Tomasini had findings to show that last year’s winter had very little snow, due to the low year-round precipitation levels. However, this winter is deemed for even more snow in New York and its area, as Tomasini added, “There’s already other chances of snow this month because we’ve been in this active pattern.”
This odd pattern was concluded to be due to an increase in “El Niño” storms. This type of storm comes through the Jet Stream from the Atlantic Ocean and brings precipitation towards the South, leaving the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast with air and not precipitation. However, the 2023 winter had a rare occurrence of an abundance of these storms, unlikely to be seen in its amount.
After all, the “City of Dreams” is due for more snowfall this season, and for years to come. Even though climate change suggests fewer regular occurrences of snow and more giant storms, New York will continue to be the city that it is and offer snow and classic winter activities.
