Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday assured New Yorkers the city is ready for its first major snowstorm in years, promising plowed streets and, if needed, a remote school day for public school students on Monday.
The snowfall expected to hit the city Sunday is the first big logistics test of his new administration as thousands of sanitation trucks will be “transformed into the nation’s largest snow fighting operation,” Mamdani said Friday morning during a press conference at the city’s emergency management headquarters in Downtown Brooklyn.
The city has procured 700 million pounds of salt ahead of the storm and has been brining highways and major roadways for days, he added.
Mamdani said he planned to spend part of Sunday out with city workers to get a sense of the storm, and encouraged people to sign up for the NotifyNYC alert system for updates.
“My job is to make clear that this is a city that’s prepared,” he said.
He announced a hazardous travel advisory for Sunday and Monday, encouraging New Yorkers to stock up on essentials before then.
The snow is expected to begin falling late Saturday night through Sunday, dumping anywhere from eight to more than 12 inches of snow, according to the latest update from the National Weather Service.
A potential sleet mix along the city’s coast is expected starting Sunday evening, with below-freezing temperatures persisting through next week.
New York City hasn’t seen such significant snowfall since 2021.
Nearly 900,000 public school students — as well as teachers and administrators — will be notified by noon on Sunday whether they’ll be in-person or remote on Monday. Most Sunday activities through NYC Schools, including Public School Athletic League games and events, have been canceled.
Schools officials have been testing the remote learning system that began during the Covid pandemic — and was most recently used in December — and increased its capacity to handle as many as a million people logging in over the course of an hour, Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said.
Teachers, students and parents experienced major issues during the last remote school day in 2024.
“We are prepared now, and we’ve increased the capacity to make sure that we can house as many students as possible on that day,” Samuels said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a statewide state of emergency earlier Friday, but the MTA is planning to operate l, transit authority Chair Janno Lieber said — with a focus on ensuring outdoor train lines can still run thanks to a de-icing system.
The city’s fleet of buses will also be running, although double-articulated buses will be taken off line.
“In these major storms, we have 35 snow-fighting vehicles that directly clear blocked streets,” Lieber said.
It’s unclear whether non-uniform city workers will have to show up to work in person on Monday. Mamdani said they’ll be notified soon about whether the day is remote.
Cold Weather, Hot Water
New York City has a long history of mayors getting into hot water over their leadership during snowstorms.
A nor’easter in February of 1969, later dubbed the “Lindsay Snowstorm,” was a defining event of Mayor John Lindsay’s time in office as some of the city’s neighborhoods remained unplowed for a week. His limo got stuck in Queens, and residents booed him; one woman in Fresh Meadows reportedly told him to “get away, you bum.”
In 2010, Mayor Michael Bloomberg flew to his home in Bermuda for Christmas only to rush back to New York City on Dec. 26 as a blizzard that finally dumped 2 feet of snow began.
He later apologized for a poor cleanup and response that left cars stranded and tertiary streets unplowed for days.
The blizzard wreaked havoc on the city’s subways. Around 500 passengers were left stranded for eight hours on a stuck A train, and MTA officials later admitted they’d forgotten about it.
Mayor Bill de Blasio was tripped up by an early-season snowstorm in November 2018 and later tried to fire his emergency management chief over it.
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