Results tagged “winter”

              

It is the , generally, made it to work! And more snow is expected today.

Before you get to uncork your first "Spring Breaaaaak!" scream, the arrival of March appears to be playing one its cruel (or delightful) tricks on us as it comes in like a snow leopard with a storm that looks like it may be the heaviest accumulation we've received all winter. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning in effect for twenty-four hours beginning at 6 p.m. this evening. They are calling for six to ten inches of snow to have fallen by tomorrow, coming down heavy at times throughout the night. (Some reports are calling for as much as 13 inches to hit Manhattan by morning.) Temperatures are expected to be lower than normal for the next few days, so the white blanket might just stick around for a while.

There's a bit of a battle going on in the weather. Winter would like to remind everbody that it is still February. At the same time, the sun is now climbing high enough in the sky that it can feel very warm outside if you are in the sun and out of the wind. Enjoy the anti-wind chill if you can find a sheltered sunny spot, otherwise winter is going to win the battle this week and probably well into next week.

Brrrr. A full course of winter is in store for the next few days. For a morning amuse bouche we've got great gobs of cold air, brutally grown without sun in northern Canada, arriving behind a cold front. The onrush of cold should cause the temperature to hold steady for much of the day. The approaching high pressure system is pretty weak. By late afternoon we should see an appetizer of calmer winds and a slightly higher temperatures.

In case you haven't noticed, Manhattan's winter Restaurant Week is fast approaching, and participating eateries are now accepting reservations for their prix fixe specials (three-course lunches for $24.07 and dinners for $35). The confusingly named "week" is actually 12 days long, running in two intervals from January 18th through the 23rd, then continuing from the 25th through the 30th. But whatever. The key here is to do a little research, because while the Restaurant Week prix fixe at, say, 21 Club isn't much cheaper than their usual $40 pre-theater dinner prix fixe, there are some sweet deals to be had.

The Brooklyn Flea isn't taking the chilly season off, but they are moving things indoors. Co-founder Jonathan Butler (pictured to the right of Eric Demby) told us that the space will be smaller than the outdoor Flea in Fort Greene, with about 30 vendors housed inside. The winter months will be held in a usually empty space at 76 Front Street in DUMBO, which we went over to check out for ourselves.

The National Weather Service would like you to know that the growing season is totally over. Yipee! No more frost or freeze warnings until next fall. The lack of any further warnings doesn't mean it won't freeze, it just means future freezes won't kill any plants as they're already dead. Cold air will continue to stream into the region for the next several days.

There's enough weather on tap this week for us to hold on to our hats, both literally and figuratively. An Alberta Clipper will pass south of the city today, transforming into a coastal storm overnight before returning tomorrow. Arctic air will quickly follow the coastal storm and another Alberta Clipper is expected to zip through the area on Thursday.

Looks like the little park that could...couldn't. The Williamsburg waterfront park, dubbed East River Park, opened just last year, but now the NY Post is saying it "will be shut for the winter as part of Gov. Paterson's sweeping budget cuts." While the closure will only be from January to March (clearly not the time to be sitting on the waterfront anyway), the NYC Park Advocates group noted, "Closing a park is unheard of in modern times." Perhaps when it makes its triumphant comeback it will have better landscaping, allow pets and extend hours (currently it's opened from 10 a.m. to dusk).

The cause of yesterday's storm, a stacked low pressure system over Quebec, will continue to bring breezy conditions to the city today. Winds around 20 mph and temperatures in the mid 40s means wind chills in the 20s and 30s. A line of showers may drop a bit of rain across the city this afternoon. The breeze will begin to calm down tomorrow as a high pressure system displaces the Canadian storm. Expect a sunny, slightly less windy high around 50 degrees on Thursday. Great weather for parading and trick-or-treating is in store for Halloween. Clear skies and a high around 60 are likely, and Friday evening won't be nearly as cold as earlier in the week.

The last full day of winter is going to be wet. A low pressure system is moving up through Pennsylvania today as it heads toward the Canadian Maritimes. Steady rain and fog are expected to continue over the city through noon. The warm front that projects off the low should arrive early this afternoon. Once it does the steady rain will turn showery. Showers will last until a cold front sweeps through tomorrow morning. Late tonight some of those showers could be in the form of a thunderstorm. An excellent way to herald the vernal equinox at 1:48 a.m. EDT!

Of the four seasons, it is winter that departs most grudgingly. And that was an intense wind late Saturday night! Western New York and Ohio beared the brunt of the weekend storm, with Columbus receiving a record 20 inches. Across the Atlantic our weekend storm is now striking the UK, which was reeling from a weekend storm of their own.

So far February has been off to a rousingly warm start. The average temperature has been 10.64 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, including a record-setting, nay record-blasting, high of 68 degrees on Wednesday. The recent warm stretch, today is the 13th straight warmer-than-normal day, will continue only through tomorrow. Today will be sort of cloudy, sort of sunny with a high around 45. We may see a litttle snow early tomorrow and a little rain later in the day. The high tomorrow may sneak up to the upper 40s.

Believe it or not a trace of snow was measured in Central Park last night. The snow lasted only the briefest of moments as a warmer air mass soon arrived. That warm air mass didn't last too long either. The storm that brought us last night's precipitation has moved out to sea. As it moves it has been strengthening. The stronger storm won't bring us more rain but it is pulling more and more cold air from the northwest. Today won't get much warmer than the low-40s we're already seeing, as cold, dry air is moving in.

Ever notice that recipes for cooking a big hunk o' meat like a turkey or a roast will often say the meat's temperature will continue to rise after being taken out of the oven? Even though the heat has been shut off, it takes time for the poor beast to lose more heat than it has gained. A vegan-friendly example would be a recipe that says to plunge your green beans in ice water to stop them from cooking further.

Last week Gothamist was in San Francisco for the third time this year. It was sunny and warm and we took an odd pleasure in watching the natives hustle about wearing wool hats and gloves. In our three trips to the west coast we managed to avoid the Valentine's Day snow storm, the April nor'easter and resultant flooding, and last week's snowy/icy/rainy pair of storms. We will leave it to our readers to decide if our timing was mere coincidence or meteorological perspicacity on our part.

Weather and climate are different things. The former refers to day-to-day changes in the atmosphere, while the latter is a result of longer-term variations. The two can often be out-of-sync, which is why Gothamist gets violently agitated when people, on an unseasonably cold day, say "how can there be global warming, it's cold today," with the self-satisfied chuckle that goes with being a complete tool. Tomorrow, however, weather and climate will be walking hand-in-hand. Climatological...

Can you believe that it warmed up to 64 degrees yesterday? You may have missed it as the normal diurnal temperature pattern, you know, coldest in the morning, warmest in the afternoon was upset by a late-night cold front. The high happened at 1:52 a.m. and the low of 43 didn't occur until midnight. Cold air continues to pour into the region behind the front. While it will be a sunny day, this afternoon is...