You may have to squint a bit at your window, but once you get outside, stick out your tongue, and voila: we have our first snow flakes of the season!
Oh sure, it probably won't stick or anything, making this more of a snow-by-technicality—but considering we haven't seen any snow in at least seven months, it's still very exciting! And NYC, Westchester and Rockland counties have just been placed on a WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY through 6 a.m. Thursday morning; officials say we could get 1-3 inches of snow toward the coast!
With the temperatures due to dip below the 30s tonight, the best chance of a real snowfall will come later today. At some point, the rain/snow mix will become a rain/sleet mix for a while before changing over to all rain—but we may get some more flurries tomorrow morning as well. Basically, it's going to be wet and damp and cold for awhile, so don't forget your umbrella and wear extra comfort sweaters.
So far, there have only been mandatory evacuations of a few health care facilities in the Rockaways; but Bloomberg stressed yesterday that if you live in an extra low-lying part of Zone A, you should move to higher ground because of the storm surge that could bring 8-12 foot waves. Here's a list of city shelters that are open, and here's a list of pickup locations for buses going to the shelters. You can also look up Red Cross shelters here.
We'll be monitoring the progress of the not-quite-as-powerful-as-first-expected Nor'Easter all day. But if you're able to snag any photos of the snow, send them to photos@gothamist.com
