Snow was absent this winter in New York City.
The city has seen only trace amounts of snow so far – below normal and slightly more than the same time last year, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported. Typically, the Big Apple sees its first snowfall in early December.
The last snowfall in New York was on January 29, 1973, according to Weather Foxwhich means that 2023 is approaching the 50-year record.
There is also no snow in the short-term forecast. No hazardous weather is forecast until next Thursday in the New York metro area, according to NWS.
The climate crisis and the current La Nina weather pattern are the main reasons for the lack of snow, according to meteorologists.
Rising greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to the burning of fossil fuels, are causing average global temperatures to rise, leading to a myriad of consequences, including more extreme weather. The past eight years have been the eight hottest on record globally, the United Nations confirmed this week.
Winter is the fastest warming season in much of the United States, and like everywhere else, New York City will experience more severe climate impacts in the coming decades. Among these will likely be a decrease in snowfall and an increase in winter rainfall.
The world is also in its third year of a La Nina, a natural, cyclical cooling of parts of the equatorial Pacific that is impacting weather patterns around the world, and the reversal of warming caused by an El Nino.
The El Nino and La Nina phenomena are one of the most significant natural effects on the climate, sometimes reinforcing or masking the human-caused climate crisis.
While New York City remains exceptionally warm, the state has not been immune to brutal conditions this winter. In late December, parts of New York State were hit with blizzards and sub-zero temperatures due to the Bomb Cyclone that swept through large parts of the country.
In the Buffalo area, nearly 40 people died over the holiday season in the region’s deadliest storm in generations. Thousands of homes were left without power and neighborhoods cut off by more than four feet of snow.
With additional reports from AP
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