Usually, at this time of winter, Central Park proudly wears its white winter coat. But not this year. In fact, the first measurable trace of snow finally fell on February 1: one centimeter. Never has the snow arrived so late in the metropolis.
The last record dates back to 1973, when the first accumulation was measured on January 29 after a 326-day drought.
Christopher Stachelski, National Weather Service Regional Observing and Climatology Program Manager for the Eastern Region, is amused: We broke the record by just three days, but we did it, and c is remarkable. But I think it will be even more remarkable to see where we are at the end of the season.
The magic of winter is therefore absent, but nothing to prevent the ice skaters who have responded to the ice rink of the busiest park in the United States. Each year, some 42 million people visit this 341-hectare “little” gem, nestled between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan.
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The Central Park skating rink continues to attract its followers, snow or not.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Frédéric Arnould
This absence of snow, Soledad Rodas, a teacher who lets her young students let off steam on the green grass of the park, does not complain too much. As a teacher, there are times when you might as well not have any, because the children are very excited. It’s true that it excites the children quite a bit, the snow. Me, I prefer that there is no snow, because I live in New Jersey and it is true that in terms of transport, it is not always very easy.
The one who has lived in the region for 10 years takes note of the upheavals. I think this is the first year where we notice a really noticeable change. And it’s true that in terms of the climate, it’s a bit upside down, I would say and it’s especially it’s very humid this year.
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Children play on the hopelessly green grass of Central Park.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Frédéric Arnould
Clarisa Alayeta, who lives in the Bronx, visits the park as often as she can, because she loves its fairy side. I like snow because it helps us to relax, to calm down. But I’m sad too, because I know it’s global warming that’s making it disappear.
Obvious global warming?
The warming is evident in the fact that the heat island in New York has been well developed for almost 100 years now, says Chris Stachelski.
This is largely due to the development of New York City which became urbanized at that time. I would say it’s more evident in the last 20 or 30 years, and I would even say it could go back 40 or 50 years. But, relatively speaking, variance is probably, to me, the biggest thing we see in terms of climate trends, just a lot of extremes one way or the other.
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New York received its first inch of snowfall in 332 days.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Frédéric Arnould
For example, this year the weather phenomenon The girl generally tends to favor less snowfall. If you go back and look at the late 1990s when we had a period of one of the strongest The boy et The girl, adds Mr. Stachelski, these winters were both abysmal in terms of snowfall. You were out for two winters in a row without seeing much in the way of snow.
A capricious snow
A little further south, Washington finally experienced a weak area of low pressure that dropped a handful of centimeters of snow dust over the region early Wednesday morning. But since air and road temperatures were generally at or above freezing, snow accumulated on grass, cars and some high surfaces, but not on roads.
On the other hand, the extreme variation of this winter can be observed in only one part of upstate New York, namely in Syracuse, one of the snowiest cities in America. Usually, it receives an annual average of more than 304 centimeters of snow. She received only 63 centimeters this winter. In Rochester, it was less than 38 centimeters, while the average is 127 centimeters at this time of year.
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Horse-drawn carriages on the outskirts of Central Park waiting for tourists who will have to do without a snowy New York
Photo: Radio-Canada / Frédéric Arnould
At the opposite end of the spectrum, to the west of the two cities, Buffalo is experiencing one of the snowiest winters in 50 years. Recall that about half of this season’s snow fell during a single deadly blizzard.
Never too late for New York
At the entrance to Central Park, Gareth, a coachman for 20 years in New York who has seen winters of all kinds, remains a philosopher. Sometimes New York City averages 20 inches [50 centimètres, NDLR] of snow per year. That being said, you can get 20 inches of snow in a single snowfall, whereas [durant] some weird years, we don’t have any snow at all. It’s like that here.
Unpredictability of climate change aside, Christopher Stachelski believes winter is far from over, however. We’ve had a lot of winters where, even in years past, the biggest winter storms didn’t hit until late February, March, or even, in some cases, early April.
2023-02-02 08:00:00
#York #city #doesnt #snow
