Samantha Delgado knows her Maspeth street isn’t likely to be plowed by the time she has to go to work Monday morning, so she was out early Saturday getting ready for the blizzard-like storm heading for New York City.
“I’m prepping, because there’s gonna be a lot of snow,” Delgado, 22, said as she searched for shovels and ice melt at the Home Depot in Bed-Sty after striking out at one closer to her home in Queens.
“I’m very worried,” said Delgado, who has a 5 a.m. shift at Elmhurst Hospital and lives on a dead end street that doesn’t get plowed early. “It’s really up to us to fend for ourselves to get out of there.”
Delgado wasn’t alone. With a collision of massive weather systems expected as a polar vortex of subzero temps from Canada and a moisture-laden air blowing in from the south, Saturday was prep day throughout the tri-state area. Forecasters raised their predictions for the five boroughs to 6 to 12 inches Saturday afternoon. The Hudson Valley and northern New Jersey may get walloped with up to 15 inches. Coastal areas could also see flooding.
Accuweather meteorologist Bon Larson said the snow will start late Sunday and continue falling throughout Monday, with flurries lingering through Tuesday. The duration of the storm will be one of its most notable features, he said, and also makes it hard to predict how much snow to expect.
Monday evening, the snow could be dropping up to 2 inches per hour, and winds will be strong, with gusts near 45 mph. That falls short of the steady 40 mph winds that define a blizzard, but with temperatures in the lower 20s and “real feel” in the lower teens, that definition may seem like nitpicking.
Monday morning’s commute will likely be especially messy.
Hazardous weather warnings were up from the upper Midwest to the Northeast. Snow was expected to start in Chicago Saturday afternoon and move steadily east. When the frigid system slams into another air mass moving up from the south and the somewhat warmer coastal air, the storm will evolve into a nor’easter.
And while Accuweather meteorologist Bill Deger admitted that this season has already had a few big storm predictions go bust, this one seems like more of a sure thing, he said. “This one looks to be more on the snowy side, because of all the cold air we have ahead of it,” he said.
Temperatures are likely to stay in the 20s Sunday. Warmer air will arrive Monday, meaning that some areas of coastal New Jersey and Long Island could see the snow turning to a mix of snow and sleet.
At Beacon Hardware on Amsterdam Avenue, assistant manager Raaid Alsaidi said shovels and salt were in high demand Saturday. “People are more prepared than last time,” he said, adding that expected Sunday to be even busier.
At the Jamaica Home Depot, Wanda Rowe, 55, was grabbing supplies while she could. “Last snow storm I came here about 6 [p.m.] after work, and they had nothing — no ice melt. This time I made sure I came early,” she said smiling. “I’m all prepared.”