Polar vortex to rock NYC with half foot of snow, brutal cold
A brutal polar vortex is set to bury the Big Apple in snow Sunday and then deliver deadly single-digit temperatures that will feel like 15 degrees below zero.
New York City could get up to 6 inches of snow in a nor’easter that will start around noon and continue late into the evening. Parts of northern New Jersey could see up to 10 inches of snow.
The powder will stick around thanks to bone-chilling temps in the low teens that will linger through Wednesday, according to Fox Weather meteorologist Cody Braud.
Up to half a foot of snow will also cover Washington, D.C. and the I-95 corridor from Philadelphia to Boston.
The last time NYC saw six inches of snow was Dec. 16, 2020.
But it’s the bitter freezing temperatures that will really strike a blow.
“The cold will be even more dangerous than the snow,” Braud warned. “With the wind chill, Tuesday morning will likely be feeling below zero.”
Monday night into Tuesday will bring wind chills of minus-15 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Ten to 20-mph gusts are expected to lash the region through the middle of the week, prompting a “Code Blue” cold weather alert from city officials.
“Outreach teams will canvass all five boroughs to connect our most vulnerable New Yorkers to shelters,” the city’s Office of Emergency Management posted on X. “No one who is homeless and seeking shelter in New York City during a Code Blue will be denied.
The polar vortex will Arctic air directly from Siberia, giving approximately 300 million Americans a taste of the tundra.
The cold blast will send at least 20 states from the Plains to the Great Lakes and the Northeast into a deep freeze, with the mercury plummeting to a whopping -50 in parts of the Midwest and the Ohio River Valley.
Deadly hypothermia and frostbite will threaten millions, experts warn.
The brutal weather will send President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday indoors, the first time the ceremony will take place inside the Capitol Rotunda in 40 years.
“This could be one of the coldest presidential inaugurations since Ronald Reagan was sworn into office in 1985,” according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Alex DaSilva.
The snow could also throw a curveball for the NFL playoff game in Philadelphia Sunday afternoon, where low visibility and snow accumulation on the field is likely.
And the winter weather is not letting up yet.
Meteorologists have their eyes on another winter storm likely unfolding across the south late next week that could make its way up the East Coast, dumping more snow on the inches set to fall this weekend.
